Knight Inlet 2007 Movies
Rich Pawlowicz
Updated 19/April/2007
Background
Knight Inlet is a remote coastal fjord in British Columbia. Since 1980 it has
been widely studied by physical and biological oceanographers, acousticians,
fluid dynamicists, numerical modellers, and theorists - people who like to think about
stratified flow over bumps - because the fjord is roughly straight
with a particularly
simple (nearly 2-dimensional) sill which produces a wide array of internal
flow patterns in response to
changing tides. These internal flow patterns tend to produce rough and smooth patches
on the surface which helps in identifying what is going on.
In March 2007 I visited the area in collaboration with Patrick Cummins and Svein
Vagle (Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC) and Larry Armi (Scripps Institution of
Oceanography). As well as measuring water column properties from the research vessel
Vector and the smaller motor vessel Elvis) I hiked up the side of the fjord to take
time-lapse sequences of the sill. The images and animations on this page show the
results.
Notes
- Photos are gray-scaled, rectified, and contrast-enhanced but not other processing
has been applied. Visible edges result from overlay of images at different zooms
and/or different cameras.
- Movies are mpg format. Flashes and gaps in data are "true" arising from gaps in photo sequence.
Movies cover period of image sequences and not complete period of ship observations.
- Problems with images include cloud obscuring water surface, rain drops (on lens), and dark/light
patches from topography and clouds.
- CCGS Vector location is red/yellow, Elvis is blue/agenta. Short tails extend 1 minute
before and after present location, long (yellow) tail is 30 minutes
before and after.
- Blue contours are at 20m intervals from high-resolution bathymetry.
- In displays at right are Vector thermosalinograph and tidal height, current
time is marked by vertical line in center of subplot. Thermosalinograph shifted by approx
4.5 minutes (!) to account for plumbing delays.
- Radar movie won't get any better - camera had focussing problems and most images
are highly blurred
- All results are preliminary!
Date
|
Single image
|
Movie
|
Wednesday Mar 14
|
|
|
Thursday Mar 15
|
|
|
Thursday Mar 15 (up inlet view)
|
|
|
Friday Mar 16 (RADAR only)
|
|
|
Saturday Mar 17
|
|
|
Sunday Mar 18
|
|
|
Sunday Mar 18 (overview)
|
|
|
Monday Mar 19
|
|
|
Monday Mar 19 (bridge pics in afternoon)
|
|
|