Here u0 is defined as the low-passed volume transport divided by the low-passed cross-sectional area. Thus, Qf includes the volume transport resulting from the correlation between tidal currents and fluctuation in the cross-sectional area,

and S0 is the tidally and cross-sectionally averaged salinity. The resulting three terms are the salt fluxes due to sub-tidal cross-sectionally averaged transport (Qf S0), the sub-tidal shear selleck chemical dispersion (FE), and tidal oscillations (FT). As pointed out by Lerczak et al. (2006), in the absence of axial wind, the two up-estuary salt fluxes (FE and FT) balance the down-estuary salt loss to river discharge (Qf S0). The instantaneous total flux and the tidally averaged total salt flux Fs were generated at nine cross-sections in CB for Hurricanes Floyd ( Fig. 13, upper Caspase inhibitor panel) and Isabel ( Fig. 13, lower panel). In Fig. 13(a), before the hurricanes make landfall, it is obvious that the ocean saltwater influx was induced by the remote northeasterly wind of both hurricanes. The magnitude of the flux at the Bay mouth due to Isabel appears to be greater than that due to Floyd. This can be attributed to the rotation of the unsteady winds from the northeasterly

to easterly, which favored Isabel. For Hurricane Floyd, the initial salt influx Glutathione peroxidase only reaches the lower Bay, whereas during Isabel the salt flux effects were felt at the northern end of the Middle Bay. The strong seaward flow induced by down-Bay winds

during Floyd restricted landward salt flux to the upper Bay, whereas landward flow enhanced by up-Bay winds during Hurricane Isabel strengthened the landward salt flux to the upper Bay. In the subsequent time sequence, shown in Fig. 13(b)–(e), the flux is affected by the local wind and dominated by the large pulse of volume transport in Fs. Most of the time, the direction of salt transport is unidirectional across the nine transects of the Bay, with the exceptions of (c) for Floyd and (e) for Isabel. The salt is either flushed out (Floyd) or pumped in (Isabel) to the Bay as a result of the net volume transport, and Fs is dominated by Qf S0 rather than FE or FT. Further details of the oceanic salt influx at the Bay mouth are shown in Fig. 14, in which the time series of instantaneous total salt flux Fs are shown on the top panel for Hurricanes Floyd (left) and Isabel (right). The full tidal cycle of 16 September, 1999 and two tidal cycles of 17–18 September, 2003, which were before the hurricanes made landfall, are marked by the dark shaded area. The lateral distribution of the total cross-sectional tidally averaged salt flux over the period is shown in the middle panel.