Meteorological Forcing on Louisiana Wetlands

by Shih-Ang Hsu, Louisiana State Unversity, Baton Rouge, United States,
Brian William Blanchard, Louisiana State Unversity, Baton Rouge, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Coastal Zone '93

Abstract:

The open wetland areas of southern Louisiana are vulnerable to meteorological forcing. On the basis of over one year U.S.G.S. funded measurements of atmospheric pressure, air-sea temperature difference, wind speed and direction, and the momentum flux in the wetland system comprising the Terrebonne and Four League Bays and a U.S.G.S. site on the marsh, a characterization of these meteorological forcings is discussed. Two important atmospheric stresses are temperature (thermal) and the wind (mechanical). It will be shown that the response of the sea-surface temperature to the atmospheric temperature forcing at a shallow (less than 4 m) bay is direct and nearly instantaneous. The effect of the wind stress is investigated from three sites in the wetlands via the two-level wind speed measurement system. The results indicate that the deep water drag coefficient formulation as often used by researchers can not be applied to the wetland environment.

Subject Headings: Wetlands (coastal) | Meteorology | Temperature effects | Wind speed | Wind engineering | Wetlands (fresh water) | Thermal loads | Louisiana | United States

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