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The estimation of mass concentration of suspended solids is one of the properties needed to understand the characteristics of sediment transport in bays and estuaries. However, useful measurements or estimates of this property are often problematic when employing the usual methods of determination from collected water samples or optical sensors. Analysis of water samples tends to undersample the highly variable character of suspended solids, and optical sensors often become useless from biological fouling in highly productive regions. Acoustic sensors, such as acoustic Doppler current profilers that are now routinely used to measure water velocity, have been shown to hold promise as a means of quantitatively estimating suspended solids from acoustic backscatter intensity, a parameter used in velocity measurement. To further evaluate application of this technique using commercially available instruments, profiles of suspended solids concentrations are estimated from acoustic backscatter intensity recorded by 1200- and 2400-kHz broadband acoustic Doppler current profilers located at two sites in San Francisco Bay, California. ADCP backscatter intensity is calibrated using optical backscatterance data from an instrument located at a depth close to the ADCP transducers. In addition to losses from spherical spreading and water absorption, calculations of acoustic transmission losses account for attenuation from suspended sediment and correction for nonspherical spreading in the near field of the acoustic transducer. Acoustic estimates of suspended solids consisting of cohesive and noncohesive sediments are found to agree within about 8–10% (of the total range of concentration) to those values estimated by a second optical backscatterance sensor located at a depth further from the ADCP transducers. The success of this approach using commercially available Doppler profilers provides promise that this technique might be appropriate and useful under certain conditions in spite of some theoretical limitations of the method.

Advances in technology have resulted in a new instrument that is designed for in-situ determination of particle size spectra. Such an instrument that can measure undisturbed particle size distributions is much needed for sediment transport studies. The LISST-100 (Laser In-Situ Scattering and Transmissometry) uses the principle of laser diffraction to obtain the size distribution and volume concentration of suspended material in 32 size classes logarithmically spaced between 1.25 and 250 μm. This paper describes a laboratory evaluation of the ability of LISST-100 to determine particle sizes using suspensions of single size, artificial particles. Findings show the instrument is able to determine particle size to within about 10% with increasing error as particle size increases. The instrument determines volume (or mass) concentration using a volume conversion factor Cv. This volume conversion factor is theoretically a constant. In the laboratory evaluation Cv is found to vary by a factor of about three over the particle size range between 5 and 200 μm. Results from field studies in South San Francisco Bay show that values of mass concentration of suspended marine sediments estimated by LISST-100 agree favorably with estimates from optical backscatterance sensors if an appropriate value of Cv, according to mean size, is used and the assumed average particle (aggregate) density is carefully chosen. Analyses of size distribution of suspended materials in South San Francisco Bay over multiple tide cycles suggest the likelihood of different sources of sediment because of different size characteristics during flood and ebb cycles.

A field investigation of the hydrodynamics and the resuspension and transport of particulate matter in a bottom boundary layer was carried out in South San Francisco Bay (South Bay), California, during March-April 1995. Using broadband acoustic Doppler current profilers, detailed measurements of turbulent mean velocity distribution within 1.5 m above bed have been obtained. A global method of data analysis was used for estimating bottom roughness length zo and bottom shear stress (or friction velocities u*). Field data have been examined by dividing the time series of velocity profiles into 24-hour periods and independently analyzing the velocity profile time series by flooding and ebbing periods. The global method of solution gives consistent properties of bottom roughness length zo and bottom shear stress values (or friction velocities u*) in South Bay. Estimated mean values of zo and u* for flooding and ebbing cycles are different. The differences in mean zo and u* are shown to be caused by tidal current flood-ebb inequality, rather than the flooding or ebbing of tidal currents. The bed shear stress correlates well with a reference velocity; the slope of the correlation defines a drag coefficient. Forty-three days of field data in South Bay show two regimes of zo (and drag coefficient) as a function of a reference velocity. When the mean velocity is >25–30 cm s−1, the ln zo (and thus the drag coefficient) is inversely proportional to the reference velocity. The cause for the reduction of roughness length is hypothesized as sediment erosion due to intensifying tidal currents thereby reducing bed roughness. When the mean velocity is

A numerical model using a semi-implicit finite-difference method for solving the two-dimensional shallow-water equations is presented. The gradient of the water surface elevation in the momentum equations and the velocity divergence in the continuity equation are finite-differenced implicitly, the remaining terms are finite-differenced explicitly. The convective terms are treated using an Eulerian-Lagrangian method. The combination of the semi-implicit finite-difference solution for the gravity wave propagation, and the Eulerian-Lagrangian treatment of the convective terms renders the numerical model unconditionally stable. When the baroclinic forcing is included, a salt transport equation is coupled to the momentum equations, and the numerical method is subject to a weak stability condition. The method of solution and the properties of the numerical model are given. This numerical model is particularly suitable for applications to coastal plain estuaries and tidal embayments in which tidal currents are dominant, and tidally generated residual currents are important. The model is applied to San Francisco Bay, California where extensive historical tides and current-meter data are available. The model calibration is considered by comparing time-series of the field data and of the model results. Alternatively, and perhaps more meaningfully, the model is calibrated by comparing the harmonic constants of tides and tidal currents derived from field data with those derived from the model. The model is further verified by comparing the model results with an independent data set representing the wet season. The strengths and the weaknesses of the model are assessed based on the results of model calibration and verification. Using the model results, the properties of tides and tidal currents in San Francisco Bay are characterized and discussed. Furthermore, using the numerical model, estimates of San Francisco Bay's volume, surface area, mean water depth, tidal prisms, and tidal excursions at spring and neap tides are computed. Additional applications of the model reveal, qualitatively the spatial distribution of residual variables.

Analyses of sea level and current-meter data using digital filters and a variety of statistical methods show a variety of phenomena related to non-local coastal forcing and local tidal forcing in the northern reach of San Francisco Bay, a partially mixed estuary. Low-frequency variations in sea level are dominated by non-local variations in coastal sea level and also show a smaller influence from tidally induced fortnightly sea level variations. Low-frequency currents demonstrate a gravitational circulation which is modified by changes in tidal-current speed over the spring-neap tidal cycle. Transients in gravitational circulation induce internal oscillations with periods of two to four days.

Water level observations from tide stations and current observations from current-meter moorings in South San Francisco Bay (South Bay), California have been harmonically analysed. At each tide station, 13 harmonic constituents have been computed by a least-squares regression without inference. Tides in South Bay are typically mixed; there is a phase lag of approximately 1 h and an amplification of 1·5 from north to south for a mean semi-diurnal tide. Because most of the current-meter records are between 14 and 29 days, only the five most important harmonics have been solved for east-west and north-south velocity components. The eccentricity of tidal-current ellipse is generally very small, which indicates that the tidal current in South Bay is strongly bidirectional. The analyses further show that the principal direction and the magnitude of tidal current are well correlated with the basin bathymetry. Patterns of Eulerian residual circulation deduced from the current-meter data show an anticlockwise gyre to the west and a clockwise gyre to the east of the main channel in the summer months due to the prevailing westerly wind. Opposite trends have been observed during winter when the wind was variable.