《Formation of tidal sand waves- Effects of the spring‐neap cycle》.pdf

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 115, C10017, doi:10.1029/2010JC006400, 2010 Formation of tidal sand waves: Effects of the spring‐neap cycle Paolo Blondeaux1 and Giovanna Vittori1 Received 12 May 2010; revised 11 June 2010; accepted 21 June 2010; published 8 October 2010. [1] The effects that the spring‐neap cycle has on the formation of tidal sand waves are investigated by performing a linear stability analysis of the flat bottom configuration of a shallow sea subject to a modulated tidal current. The slow temporal changes of the tidal range tend to accelerate the process which leads to the appearance of tidal sand waves and to give rise to shorter bed forms, when sediment transport is dominated by the bed load contribution. When the suspended load provides a significant contribution to the total load, the growth rate of the sand waves becomes smaller and longer bed forms tend to be generated. Citation: Blondeaux, P., and G. Vittori (2010), Formation of tidal sand waves: Effects of the spring‐neap cycle, J. Geophys. Res., 115, C10017, doi:10.1029/2010JC006400. 1. Introduction periodicity which is usually semidiurnal. However, other tidal constituents can be relevant. For example, the tidal [2] The relative motion of earth, moon, and sun gives rise range (which is the difference between the high and low water to small changes of the local gravitational force which in levels) varies on a period of approximately 14.77 days, being turn induce a rhythmical rise and fall of the ocean surface smallest (neap tides) when moon and sun are at quadra