looking at the pics, how does the canyon's bathymmetry and the NY Bight affect the waves (if at all??) and in what swell direction would they be most pronounced?
the continental shelf and hudson canyon will play a role in swell refraction along these lines: When ocean swells travel into shallow water, they will slow down, while being faster in the adjacent deeper waters. These causes the refraction process, most commonly illustrated when waves approach headlands and bend toward the shallower water. But, when the wave periods are long enough, this process will happen further offshore, and this is where the offshore bathymetry can influence the swells. I'm not sure how influencial the narrow hudson canyon is on the NJ/NY surf, but this is my best attempt at reasoning. On a S swell, you are going to see more swell energy focused into Monmouth County NJ, where as on a E/NE swell the narrow deep water canyon will allow more energy to be refracted toward the Rockaway Beach, NY area.
Hmmmmmmm. . . I'd have to say that it's an awfully narrow window (canyon) for any particular generic swell to present itself any differently from the usual. The continental shelf pretty much kills everything of substance from hitting the east coast- which is probably a good thing because we'd all be one huge flooded estuary if the continental shelf weren't there. For those interested, I highly recommend (as do many others) Willard Bascom's book ''Waves and Beaches.'' http://www.amazon.com/review/produc...cm_cr_acr_txt?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 It's a very definitive source of information on all things related to waves and their interaction with the beach. I suspect Micah read this book as part of his training in college.
what is the reason for this? i really noticed this last october more than any other time before (i drove a LOT that morning!!)
not to mentioned that 95% of the breaks in the Mid atlantic can't hold swells over 6-8 foot / 12 second period.
u would be surprised how much the small variability in the bathymetry plays on swell focusing into different areas. Its not as noticeable on the east coast with our general short period swells, but you'll see much more variability with the longer period swells.
swells will travel faster in the deeper water of the canyon, while slower on the adjacent sides. So if a swell is coming from the S, the eastern side of the swell may travel faster in the deeper canyon waters causing it to bend or refract towards New Jersey. Make sense? Its a little difficult to grasp without any good visuals to show, but its the same process that happens around a headland. The swells reach the shallow water near the headland first and slow down, where to the left or right of the headland, the water is deeper, so the swells travel faster there and bend toward the coast.
Actually, on a south swell the hudson canyon refracts swell away from extreme northern monmouth county. (watch the swell models on a big south swell and you will see exactly what i mean) I'm not sure the effect on the Rockaway area on a East or Northeast swell but I do know that northern monmouth county does receive all of this swell direction.
monmouth county is almost always bigger on any kinda S or SE swell specially northern monmouth county im sure the canyon affects the swell a little bit def could funnel swell into a few north jersey spots
