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The Atchafalaya Bay system consists of a series of five shallow bays in southern Louisiana (U.S.A.) that are dominated by the circulation of the Atchafalaya River plume. Winter cold fronts have a significant impact on the resuspension and transport of sediments in this region, and a better understanding of the circulation during these events is absolutely necessary for determining the sediment transport patterns of the Atchafalaya Bay system and the adjacent shelf area. Understanding the circulation of this region is also crucial for environmental studies as well. This work describes the implementation of the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM), a three-dimensional numerical circulation model for tide, river, and wind-forced circulation in the Atchafalaya Bay system. The model has a cell size (Δx) of ∼800 m and is nested to a northern Gulf of Mexico model (Δx ∼ 5000 m), which is itself nested to the global NCOM (Δx ∼ 1/8°). Atmospheric forcing is supplied by the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) (Δx = 1°). These models are used to simulate the hydrodynamics of the Atchafalaya Bay system and Atchafalaya river plume between December 1997 and January 1998 during the passage of three winter cold fronts. The water levels, salinity, and currents predicted by NCOM are in reasonable agreement with available measurements and tide-gauge elevation data. Errors in ebb tides and wind-driven circulation are attributable to uncertainties in the bathymetry and the low spatial and temporal resolution of the NOGAPS wind fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Part 2 of our application of the Navy coastal ocean model (NCOM) to the Atchafalaya Bay system, we examine the wind- and tide-forced three-dimensional baroclinic circulation of the Lower Atchafalaya and Wax Lake Outlet river plumes. The salinity and the current velocity are examined during a time period when three cold fronts passed over the region. The baroclinic circulation of NCOM was validated for the same time period in Part 1 of this study (COBB, KEEN, and WALKER, 2008. Modeling the circulation of the Atchafalaya Bay region, 1: Model description and validation. Journal of Coastal Research, this issue). We find that the westward transport of plume water and the offshore cold-front- induced circulation are determined to a large extent by the alongshore and cross-shore bathymetric structure. Wind-driven plume water moves parallel to the alongshore bathymetric contours unless forced to mix with higher salinity water by strong cross-shore directed winds. The mixing of plume water with offshore water occurs over bathymetric shoals during periods of strong post-frontal winds. This mixing process involves the offshore transport of plume water over the entire water column in addition to the strong surface transport. The model results for offshore circulation are in qualitative agreement with past observations. In addition, the hydrodynamic processes that control the salinity fronts in Vermilion and West Cote Blanche Bays, areas where the model salinity was validated in Part 1, are examined as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]