Lateral dynamic analysis and classification of barotropic tidal inlets

The dynamical balances at shallow tidal inlets are highly nonlinear, and can vary substantially over sub-kilometer scales. In this study, barotropic dynamics are examined with numerical experiments on a series of idealized inlets with differing inlet widths and lengths. Circulation and elevation fields obtained from fully nonlinear depth-integrated circulation models are used to reconstruct the contribution of each term in the momentum equations. Momentum terms are rotated into a streamline coordinate system to simplify interpretation of the dynamics. Spatial patterns in momentum reveal that the lateral balances at inlets can vary from nearly geostrophic to strongly cyclostrophic. Marked dynamical differences are seen between inlets with different lengths and widths. Inlet regions of geostrophic or cyclostrophic balances can be predicted using two dimensionless parameters, the dynamic length L* and dynamic width W*. A classification scheme is proposed using L* and W* to compare the idealized inlets analyzed here with inlets from 20 previous studies. Four distinct inlet types are identified and discussed.