Lack of evidence of southerly propagating continental shelf waves in Onslow Bay, N. C.

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Abstract
Within the past decade several studies have postulated the existence of southerly propagating Continental Shelf Waves in Onslow Bay, N.C. from comparisons of sea level data collected at various stations located at or upstream of the Cape Fear River, N.C. and from a coastal tide gage located at Beaufort, N.C., to the north. Inter‐comparison of sea level data collected at Beaufort, an open ocean station, to that collected at Wilmington, a site to the south and 45.6 km upstream of the mouth, led to the conclusion that the phase lag displayed by the Wilmington versus Beaufort cross spectrum was indicative of the southerly propagation of the first three modes of zero group speed shelf waves. However, as we show in this paper, while Wilmington sea level may lag that of Beaufort, the spectrum of sea level data collected at the mouth of the Cape Fear leads that of Beaufort, as well as that of Wilmington. What is suggested herein is that the phase lag observed at Wilmington is actually due to an estuarine, river caused delay and not due to the explicit detection of southerly propagating Continental Shelf Waves.

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