COASTAL CURRENTS ON THE NORTHERN OMANI SHELF

Coastal currents affect morphology, ecology and economy of the coastal zone. The main controlling factors for coastal currents are shelf topography, terrestrialdischarges, tides, wind and motions imposed from the open ocean [1]. Since all these factors depend on specific local conditions, coastal currents must be studied locally.Currently, the hydrodynamics along Oman s northern coasts are not well understood. Concepts about currents on the shelf are mainly derived from studies on open oceanprocesses within the Sea of Oman. The relative importance of tides, wind and mesoscale dynamics on the coastal circulation has not been studied. Nearshore currents remainunclear, largely owing to missing high resolution models and local field data. Here we study coastal flow in the vicinity of Muscat, based on ADCP measurements. Our principal research question was: what are the general patterns and the main drivers of the local circulation