Abstract
The Mississippi Sound and Bight is a dynamic region to the east of the well-studied Texas/Louisiana shelf. Riverine input, variable winds, tidal exchange, and a complex coastal geography all play a role in the ecosystem dynamics of this economically important region. The Mississippi Sound and Mississippi Bight exchange coastal waters and represent an important pathway that links the freshwater dominated coastal waters with the open ocean shelf waters from the Bight. To understand this interlinked circulation and material exchange between the Mississippi Sound and Bight, a physical model was developed based on the Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) Modeling System. The Mississippi Sound and Bight Regional Ocean Modeling System (msbROMS) provides insights into the seasonal variations of the physical interactions in this coastal ecosystem that is heavily influenced by freshwater plumes. A high-resolution wind field that resolves the diurnal sea breeze is applied for this study and twin experiments with full resolution winds and filtered winds have been performed to investigate the influence of the diurnal sea breeze on the flushing of the region. Results from these numerical experiments provide a detailed perspective on residence times and the seasonal influence of the sea/land breeze circulation cycle and its impacts on the potential material exchange between the open ocean and coastal waters.
