Sponsor
For this research, SLD was supported by the Coastal Marine Institute (CMI) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (Cooperative Agreement #M24AC00020), a cooperative agreement with Woolpert, Inc. and the Interagency Airborne Technologies for Lidar, Analysis, and Surveying (I-ATLAS), and the US Army Engineering Research and Development Center Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (ERDC-CRREL; contract: W913E524C0005). SAT was funded by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (contract W912HQ24C0020).
Published In
Continental Shelf Research
Document Type
Pre-Print
Publication Date
8-1-2026
Subjects
Storm surges -- Pacific Ocean-- Alaska, Coastal floods -- Alaska
Abstract
Coastal floods are composed of multiple drivers that interact with coastline geometries and are difficult to differentiate. To investigate the effects of basin shapes on storm surge and tides, we study the landfall of ex-Typhoon Merbok in the east Bering Sea, Alaska. Water levels at 34 stations are detided with a new tide wavelet tool, CWT_Multi (Lobo et al., 2024), and the spatial and temporal shifts in tides and surge are interpreted via long-wave theory. Results show nonstationary semiannual trends in tidal constituents due to ice effects and large interannual variability in mean-sea level (20-40 cm). After removing non-stationary tidal forcing from observed water levels, estimates of the spatial evolution of storm surge are less influenced by residual tide-surge interaction than using standard harmonic analysis methods for detiding. Results reveal that surge magnitudes increased into Norton Sound (diurnal resonance) and decreased into Bristol Bay (semidiurnal resonance). Landward funneling into the mixed tidal basin of the Kuskokwim River estuary amplified surge while attenuating tides at rates that reveal a frequency dependent response. The frequency response is explained using a non-dimensional friction-convergence parameter space. Storm surge amplification is strongly affected by convergence magnitude and depends on surge duration. Thus, common ∼1–2-day storm surges increase flood exposure more for communities with diurnal tides than communities with semidiurnal tides. Moreover, the duration of flooding and peak water levels are strongly influenced by basin geometry, in addition to variations in storm properties and continental shelf geometry, underscoring their importance in storm surge prediction.
Rights
© Copyright the author(s) 2026
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1016/j.csr.2026.105756
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/45085
Citation Details
Published as: Dykstra, S. L., Talke, S. A., Jay, D. A., Lobo, M., Innocenti, S., & Matte, P. (2026). Storm Surge and Tides in Convergent Estuaries: the case of Extratropical Storm Merbok in Alaska. Continental Shelf Research, 105756.
Description
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published as: Storm Surge and Tides in Convergent Estuaries: the case of Extratropical Storm Merbok in Alaska. Continental Shelf Research, 105756.