Physical oceanography study in the coastal waters of the Jordanian sector of tip northern tip of the gulf of Aqaba (Hotels Area)‎ during summer 2003

Abstract EN

Bathymetry, tide, thcnnohalinc structure and current were investigated in the coastal waters of the Jordani an sector of the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba (Hotels Area) during summer 2003 in order to provide a detailed description of the physical properties in the study area.

The results revealed that (lie minimum and maximum sea levels reference to the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) were -0.70 and 0.32 m, respectively.

Moreover, the minimum and maximum daily ranges of the tide were 0,24 and 0.90 m, respectively and the mean daily range was 0.61 m.

The cross section distribution of temperature in the study area revealed a weak gradual decrease of the temperature with depth, which ranged between —25.78-25.83 qC at the surface and —25.47-25.60 °C at 26 in depth.

Salinity had relatively a horizontal and vertical homogenous distribution that ranged between 40.41 to 40.53 during August 20"1 2003 and 40,30 to 40.60 during September 11,K 2003.

The behavior of the density (ot) followed basically the temperature and ranged between -27.20-27.22 0"t at the surface and —27,31-27,43 Ot at 26 m.

The experiment of 24-h temperature-salinity measurements at Royal Yacht Club (RYC) as a lagoon in the study area and the Marine Science Station (MSS) as an open reference point, revealed no significant differences in temperature, salinity and density (ct) values between the two sites.

The average current speeds in the layers 0-10, 10-20 and 20-26 in in the study area were 1.5 cms"1 with eastward direction, 0.5 cms'1 with anticlockwise gradually change of direction to southward and 0.9 oms"1 with southward direction, respectively.