Observations of remote and local forcing in Galveston Bay, Texas

Abstract

A high quality set of 321 days of sea level and wind records and of 126 days of current records, from winter to spring, has been used to examine the relative importance of remote and local forcing on the subtidal response in Galveston Bay, Texas. The observations show that the subtidal water surface energy increases with decreasing frequency, and that amount of energy increases with distance towards the end of the estuary. The surface setup and the water elevation at the entrance of the bay are asymmetric. The surface setup is more skewed than the sea level. The analyses show that the sea level and current subtidal fluctuations, at the entrance of the bay, are driven primarily by the remote forcing. For the sea level fluctuations, the remote forcing is four times more important than the wind stress at the entrance of the bay, and only two times more important at the end of the bay. The surface setup is primarily responsive to the shore normal wind stress. For the setup, the local forcing is two times more important than the remote forcing.