Abstract
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is proposed on long-beam velocities of Horizontal Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (HADCP) to extract flow dynamics in near-bank regions and check simulation results, particularly Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) performed for the Hudson River estuary (New York, USA). We here analyzed data measured by Horizontal Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (HADCP) at West Point, on the inner bank downstream of a bend. Results show an agreement between HADCP and ROMS in the first mode, which capture more than 97% energy of the turbulent flow measured along three HADCP beams. In addition, there appears an asymmetry between ebb and flood in the second temporal coefficient. Low-order PCA coefficients of HADCP and ROMS have fluctuation in ebb tide which may be associated with topographically-generated eddies. Tidal effect is found in lower order temporal coefficients and their spectra.
