Periodic stratification in coastal waters

The concept of stratification developing and declining on a periodic basis is not new. Estuaries have long been known to change their characters on a regular basis, sometimes from one end of the spectrum of estuarine types to the other. The details of the changes are known to be difficult for numerical models to deal with. The way in which turbulence acts to weaken stratification and, in turn, the way in which the stratification diminishes the vertical scale of the turbulence, ^{1, 2} are subjects at the leading edge of present research.