Hydrodynamic and Oil Spill Modeling: Sabine Lake

Simulations presented on this web page show the speed and direction of water movement, i.e., currents, in Sabine Lake.  Currents are shown for a moving three-day window (beginning yesterday and finishing tomorrow) and slide forward each day.  Flows are computed for about four weeks prior to today and extend through about a week beyond today, but only results for a three-day window are shown.

Sabine Lake Models are run and updated daily.

Go to step-thru frames for Sabine Lake

Model Input and Related Data

Tides

Data from the Sabine Pass station, National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) station 8770570, is used to estimate tidal forcing for the Sabine Lake TxBLEND model.  Tidal input is composed of the most recent daily tide measurement and forecasted tides, which are adjusted according to the most recent data.  Tidal inputs are applied to the model's Gulf boundary to drive model simulations.  Comparisons between measured tides and hindcasts/forecasts are shown on the TWDB Tide Forecasts webpage for Texas.  The differences in the measured data and the hindcasts are largely due to the effect of meteorological phenomena on the tide.

Wind

Wind velocity input used in the TxBLEND hydrodynamic model is derived from the NAM Model of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) by Texas A&M University Oceanography Department in cooperation with the Texas General Land Office (TGLO).  The specific wind time series is calculated for the Sabine Lake grid node at Latitude/Longitude: 29.889° N, 93.824° W.  Wind plots show the hindcast/forecast wind speed and direction that is input into TxBLEND.

River Inflows

Inflows to the Sabine Lake TxBLEND model are based on mean daily gaged inflows for the Neches River, its tributaries, and the Sabine River.  Inflows for four other minor watersheds are assigned constant values based on estimates of their historical average.