Tidal Currents In The Coastal Waters Off Terengganu

Abstract

In this research, the ocean current data measured in Merang water, Terengganu was studied. Acoustic Wave and Current Profiler also known as AWAC was deployed in the research area from August 2008 to August 2009 to collect the ocean current data. Accordingly, the data were measured in 1 hour time interval during 7 months of data collection. With respect to the measured data, the focus of this research are to investigate the tidal variations and tidal current in Merang water and to determine the dynamics of tidal current circulation and the influence of seasonal changes in Merang water. The results found that the area has a tidal response; mixed type dominated by diurnal and semidiurnal. Moreover, the ellipse analysis is conducted to determine the highest current velocity in the constituents, and the results found that K1 has a velocity faster than M2 according to the ellipse diagram. Furthermore, the result from semi-major and semi-minor axis K1 also showed that it was higher than M2 in the study area.