PVLAB: Surf Zone Vorticity and Advection (RODSEX) Field Experiment

A unique circular array of current meters was deployed in about 2 m water depth in the surfzone to make the first sea-swell (0.05-0.25 Hz) and lower frequency measurements of surfzone vertical vorticity (e.g., from horizontal eddies) over a range of incident wave conditions on a natural beach. In addition, a spatially dense 2D array of pressure sensors and current meters enables estimation of gradients in forcing and advective accelerations. During the 6-week period that these sensors were deployed, wave conditions ranged from nearly flat (offshore wave heights less than 0.4 m) to energetic (offshore wave heights > 5 m, alongshore and cross-shore flows > 1 m/s). The "statistics plots" showing the means, variances, and wave heights for the entire study can be used to identify periods with different wave heights and flows. The bathymetry evolved from roughly alongshore uniform to strongly alongshore variable with deep rip channels with a roughly 200 m alongshore spacing. These observations may be useful to examine transport mechanisms, mixing, and alongshore and cross-shore variability of surfzone motions, as well as to evaluate numerical model simulations of surfzone processes. The data include the bathymetric surveys, the processed QAQC'd statistics (significant wave heights and means and variances of bottom pressure and flows), and the QAQC'd 2 Hz time series of bottom pressure and velocities.