Hydrodynamic simulations inform coastal management and give insight to how local ocean systems might respond to a changing climate. In this talk, coastal simulations with realistic atmospheric and regional-scale boundary forcing but no tides are compared to identical simulations with tidal addition. Simulation of remote internal tides alters sub-tidal modeled circulation through additional vertical and horizontal mixing and results in a factor of 2-3 times larger virtual drifter dispersion. These results suggest the importance of modeling internal tides for passive tracer dispersion and are contextualized in an on-going effort to include hydrodynamic models in the management practice of New Zealand fisheries.

Dr. Sutara (Ata) Suanda is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and an Adjunct Lecturer in Marine Science at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is a coastal physical oceanographer who uses observations and numerical models to study the effects of surface/internal waves and tides in shelf, estuarine, and nearshore environments. He is particularly interested in how these processes affect water property transformation, material transport and dispersion. Dr. Suanda is a frequent collaborator on interdisciplinary applications of these topics.

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