A high-resolution nested simulation on non-cohesive suspended sediment transport around Palos Verdes, California

Yusuke Uchiyama (UCLA), James C. McWilliams (UCLA), Changming Dong (UCLA), and Alexander Shchpetkin (UCLA)


We have developed a high-resolution (200 m) regional configuration with ROMS for non-cohesive suspended sediment transport simulation in Santa Monica and San Pedro Bays, CA, embedded in the parent Southern California Bight domain with 1 km resolution, along with a compatible nested wind-sea/swell prediction with SWAN. The extensive upwelling event occurred in March 2002 and associated sediment transport processes are well represented. In particular, submesoscale eddies are more actively generated in the high-resolution grid, and suspended sediments are partially trapped in these eddies and transported with them.