Regional and Coastal Hydrodynamics of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Caribbean Sea

In this work a new high-resolution, finite element shallow water model for the region of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Caribbean Sea is implemented and validated. The model has a spatial resolution of at least 100 m along all coastlines of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with a finest resolution of 30 m in selected areas. Also included in the model is a detailed representation of the reef and mangrove systems that cover the coasts. The model validation included the tidal harmonic constituents, water levels, and currents. A new tidal harmonic constituent data set was produced for this work, which increases the available data of the tidal harmonics in the Lesser Antilles in particular, providing new information about the tidal dynamics at the interface between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Global atmospheric forcing was used in the model and this increased the accuracy of the model in reproducing the observed tidal constituents, water levels, and currents. The atmospheric forcing especially increased the skill of the model in reproducing the S2 barometric tide in the Caribbean Sea. Water level errors decreased with the inclusion of atmospheric forcing, and high- and low-frequency were generated by the model. These oscillations are also present in observations, meaning that the inclusion of the atmospheric forcing resulted not only in more accurate water levels, but in a more accurate representation of the hydrodynamic processes such as seiches. Coastal currents were also generated when atmospheric forcing was included. These currents had not being able to being generated previously with tidal forcing only, indicating that coastal currents in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands can not be generated by tidal forcing alone.