Fall AGU Meeting (Dec. 2002) COAST abstracts:

• Allen
  
• Bane et al.
  
• Barth et al.
  
• Carney et al.
  
• Couch et al.
  
• Cowles et al.
  
• Dale et al.
  
• Durski et al.
  
• Egbert et al.
  
• Gan et al.
  
• Hales et al.
  
• Kosro et al.
  
• Kuebel et al.
  
• Kurapov et al.
  
• Perlin et al.
  
• Pierce et al.
  
• Ruttenberg et al.
  
• Samelson
  
• Spitz et al.
  
• Wheeler
  

Abstracts should be cited as:

EOS Trans. AGU, 83 (47),
Fall Meet. Suppl.,
Abstract XXXXX-XX, 2002

OS51D-03

Coastal Meteorology and Wind-Forced Coastal Ocean Currents

Samelson, R M

The work of John S. Allen and others has established that coastal
winds are a primary forcing agent for coastal ocean currents. In
the last several decades, considerable progress has been made in
the observation and analysis of coastal wind fields. For many years,
information on coastal winds was limited to point measurements from
coastal stations and moored buoys, supplemented by ship and aircraft
observations, and products derived from large-scale atmospheric
pressure analyses. The limitations of these characterizations for
estimating wind stress over the U.S. west- coast shelf have been
dramatically illustrated by thorough comparisons of the various
estimates, and by the results of focused observational programs
in the coastal zone. Recently, wind stress fields measured by
satellite scatterometers and derived from mesoscale atmospheric
models have become available. The availability of these fields
offers exciting new opportunities, and is leading to new advances in
understanding, but important challenges and uncertainties remain.
These uncertainties have implications for the future of coastal
ocean modeling.