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Offline particle tracking (OPT) is a widely used tool for the analysis of data in oceanographic research. Given the output of a hydrodynamic model, OPT can provide answers to a wide variety of research questions involving fluid kinematics, zooplankton transport, the dispersion of pollutants, and the fate of chemical tracers, among others. In this paper, we introduce ROMSPath, an OPT model designed to complement the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS). Based on the Lagrangian TRANSport (LTRANS) model (North et al., 2008), ROMSPath is written in Fortran 90 and provides advancements in functionality and efficiency compared to LTRANS. First, ROMSPath now calculates particle trajectories using the ROMS native grid, which provides advantages in interpolation, masking, and boundary interaction, while improving accuracy. Second, ROMSPath enables simulated particles to pass between nested ROMS grids, which are an increasingly popular tool to simulate the ocean over multiple scales. Third, the ROMSPath vertical turbulence module enables the turbulent (diffusion) time step and advection time step to be specified separately, adding flexibility and improving computational efficiency. Lastly, ROMSPath includes new infrastructure enabling input of auxiliary parameters for added functionality. In particular, Stokes drift can be input and added to particle advection. Here we describe the details of these updates and improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time scales on which river inflows disperse in the coastal ocean are relevant to a host of biogeochemical and environmental processes. These time scales are examined in a modeling study of the Hudson River plume on its entry to the New York Bight (NYB). Constituent-oriented age and residence-time theory is applied to compute two time scales: mean age, which is calculated from the ratio of two model tracers, and residence time, which is calculated using the adjoint of the tracer conservation equation. Spatial and temporal variability associated with river discharge and wind is investigated. High river discharge lowers surface water age and shortens residence time in the apex of the NYB. Easterly winds increase surface water age and extend the duration waters along the Long Island coast remain in the NYB apex. Southerly winds increase age along the New Jersey coast but drive a decrease in age of offshore surface waters and prolong the time that surface waters close to the New Jersey coast stay in the NYB apex. Residence time along the Long Island coast is high in spring and summer because of the retention of water north of the Hudson shelf valley. Patterns of modeled surface water age and an age proxy computed from the ratio of satellite-measured irradiance in two channels show qualitative agreement. A least squares fit gives a statistically significant empirical relationship between the band ratio and modeled mean age for NYB waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dispersal of the Hudson River plume in response to idealized wind forcing is studied using a three-dimensional model. The model domain includes the Hudson River and its estuary, with a realistic coastline and bottom topography of the New York Bight. Steady low river discharge typical of mean conditions and a high-discharge event representative of the spring freshet are considered. Without wind forcing the plume forms a southward coastally trapped current at low river discharge and a large recirculating bulge of low-salinity water during a high-discharge event. Winds affect the freshwater export through the mouth of the estuary, which is the trajectory the plume takes upon entering the waters of the Mid-Atlantic Bight inner shelf, and the rate at which freshwater drains downstream. The dispersal trajectory is also influenced by the particular geography of the coastline in the apex of the New York Bight. Northward wind causes offshore displacement of a previously formed coastally trapped plume and drives a new plume along the Long Island coast. Southward wind induces a strong coastal jet that efficiently drains freshwater to the south. Eastward wind aids freshwater export from the estuary and favors the accumulation of freshwater in the recirculating bulge outside the mouth of Raritan Bay. Westward wind delays freshwater export from Raritan Bay. The momentum balance of the modeled plume shows that buoyancy and wind forces largely determine the pattern of horizontal freshwater dispersal, including the spreading of freshwater over ambient, more saline water and the bulge formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]