Long-Term Numerical Simulation of Three-Dimensional Hydrodynamics of Chesapeake Bay

A time-varying 3D numerical model of Chesapeake Bay has been developed to provide flow fields to a 3D water quality model of the bay. The water surface, 3D velocity field, salinity, and temperature are computed. Major physical processes affecting bay circulation and vertical mixing and modeled. A particular feature of the model is the solution of transformed equations on a boundary-fitted grid in the horizontal plane. Using historical forcing data, flow fields for the years of 1984, 1985 and 1986 have been computed. These years represent wet, average and dry freshwater inflow years, respectively. Results at main bay as well as tributary stations are presented for 1985. These results demonstrate that the numerical model is able to accurately reproduce the observed salinity field. This implies that the flow field is also accurately computed.