Johanna Rosman
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Estuaries, where rivers meet the sea, mix fresh and salt water, and that mixing shapes water quality. In most estuaries tides drive the mixing, so the role of wind is less understood.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
- Topics
estuary
estuarine circulation
salinity
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Simulate constant wind blowing at different angles to a straight estuarine channel using ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) to see how wind direction controls circulation and salinity.
- Model an estuary with perpendicular legs joined by a curved section, varying wind speed and direction, freshwater inflow and bend radius, to test how the bend shapes salinity gradients and upstream salt intrusion.
- Vary the duration and spacing of wind events in simulations, relative to the timescales of wind mixing, wind-driven currents and density-driven (baroclinic) response, to learn how event timing controls salinity distribution.
- Run simulations on a realistic Neuse Estuary domain to test whether theory from idealized estuary models applies to a real wind-dominated, micro-tidal estuary.
More about the research
The Neuse Estuary in North Carolina is different. Its tides are very small (micro-tidal), so wind is thought to dominate, and its channel bends by nearly 90 degrees. This project asks how wind events move water and salt around in a curved, wind-driven estuary like this one.
Why it matters
Better knowledge of how wind drives circulation in the Neuse Estuary could help nearby communities interpret water quality records. It would clarify the circulation features that control how long water stays in the estuary and how quickly it is flushed out. The results could also improve prediction and management of water quality in the Neuse and in other bent, wind-dominated estuaries.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Robert Sanchez
Harvey Mudd College, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Simulate how low-inflow estuary circulation responds to strong surface heating and intense freshwater pulses using the ROMS hydrodynamic model.
Ruoying He
North Carolina State University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Test how ocean eddies, steep seafloor terrain and local wind patterns cause regional differences in how Caribbean waters change, using autonomous underwater glider surveys across key passages.
John Wilkin
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure water mass and transport variability at the same time in the inflow and outflow straits of the Indonesian Throughflow, using a 3-year mooring array run jointly with China and Indonesia.
The school
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 523 research doctorates a year.
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