DOI: 10.5066/p9i45j6z
title: U.S. Geological Survey simulations of hydrodynamics and morphodynamics in Cape Cod Bay, MA

description: The Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST; Warner and others, 2019; Warner and others, 2010) model was used to simulate ocean circulation, waves, and sediment transport in Cape Cod Bay, MA. Larger scale simulations of the US East Coast (Warner and Kalra, 2022) were used to drive numerical grids covering the Gulf of Maine (~1000m resolution) with a two-way nested downscaled region into Cape Cod Bay (~250m resolution).

Results were analyzed to investigate bay-scale dynamics of net transport, seafloor elevation changes, and net sediment fluxes. Those results were further used to drive a coastal scale grid that stretched along ~17km of the coast from the Cape Cod Canal to Sandy Neck Beach. This nearshore grid had cross-shore resolution that varied from 2 m at the coast to approximately 30m at the offshore, and 20 m alongshore resolution. The simulation used the InWave infragravity group wave model coupled to a three-dimensional ocean model. InWave transports the wave action density, with wave rollers and dissipation due to bottom friction and wave breaking.

Surface forcings were obtained from NOAA North American Mesoscale model data set (NCEI, 2004) including surface winds, air temperature, short wave and long wave radiation, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation. The seafloor was initialized with a uniform 2m thick distribution of sediment consisting of a constant 0.125mm grain size with a 8.7mm/s settling velocity, erosion rate of 1.0d-4 kg/m2/s, and a 0.14 N/m2 critical threshold of erosion. Simulations were performed for a time period from January 1, 2021 to April 30, 2021 and included several large storm events.

This is a summary page for the collection of 2 sub pages.
-The first sub page is for the simulation from Jan 1, 2021 to April 30, 2021 for Cape Cod Bay using ROMS and SWAN:
U.S. Geological Survey simulations of hydrodynamics and morphodynamics in Cape Cod Bay, MA: Cape Cod Bay Jan - April 2021.
-The second sub page is for the simulation from Jan 1, 2021 to April 30, 2021 for a coastal section from Cape Cod Canal to Sandy Neck Beach ROMS and InWave:
U.S. Geological Survey simulations of hydrodynamics and morphodynamics in Cape Cod Bay, MA: Sandwich Jan - April 2021.

Reference cited:
National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce, NCEI DSI 6173, gov.noaa.ncdc:C00630, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.ncdc:C00630.

Warner, J.C., Armstrong, Brandy, He, Ruoying, and Zambon, J.B., 2010, Development of a coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave-sediment transport (COAWST) modeling system: Ocean Modelling, v. 35, issue 3, p. 230-244.

Warner, J.C., Ganju, N.K., Sherwood, C.R., Kalra, T.S., Aretxabaleta, A., He, R., Zambon, J., and Kumar, N., 2019, Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) Modeling System: U.S. Geological Survey Software Release, 23 April 2019, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9NQUAOW.

Warner, J.C., and Kalra, T.S., 2022, Collection of COAWST model forecast for the US East Coast and Gulf of Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P903KPBJ.