Lateral Circulation Generates Flood Tide Stratification and Estuarine Exchange Flow in a Curved Tidal Inlet

Cross-channel transect measurements of microstructure and velocity in a well-mixed and curved tidal inlet in the German Wadden Sea show the occurrence of significant late flood stratification. This stratification is found to be a result of lateral straining. This study observes a strong single-cell lateral circulation, which is strongly pronounced at late flood and absent during most of ebb. This tidal asymmetry is caused by a systematic interplay between centrifugal forcing and the lateral baroclinic pressure gradient. During flood a positive feedback between the terms generates strong lateral circulation, whereas during ebb a negative feedback leads to a suppression of the cross-channel exchange. A theoretical framework based on vorticity is developed, which allows lateral and longitudinal circulation to be studied in a consistent way. With this framework it is possible to show that the tidal asymmetry of the lateral flow is a major driver of residual longitudinal estuarine circulation, here identified with the tidally averaged across-channel vorticity component.