February 2012 (ROTM#38) Egmond aan zee, Netherlands

Yep, there are plenty of beaches and  rips in Holland. It's not all tulips and dykes. This photo was sent in by Gundula Winter, who is about to submit her Masters at Delft University (Feb 14) so I think to help her along, she'll need to read up on her free copy of my Essential Beach Book! Egmond aan zee is a coastal resort on the North Sea and it does get a fair amount of waves.

 The Netherlands keeps churning out some amazing coastal scientists who have really influenced our understanding about how waves and beaches work. This picture was taken last year in August during an experiment to look at rip currents, which were identified by lifeguards at the beach as being a problem for swimmers. She and her fellow students and a few more volunteers spent a week jumping in rips with GPS mounted to our heads. The photo is taken from a jet-ski and shows drifters being pulled offshore in a strong rip (up to 0.6 m/s). In the upper she's plotted the measured drifter paths (the colours indicate drifter velocities) and the underlying bathymetry that was surveyed from a jet-ski during the field week.

 Along with the results from a numerical model the field data provided valuable insight in the parameters that govern rip currents at Egmond aan Zee. I like the fact that the trajectory shows the rip taking a meandering path. It is hard to actually see the rip in this photo, but the surface of the water near the drifters is a bit streaky indicating water moving offshore.

She said the picture was actually taken by Willem Verbeek who I think is her supervisor...but the prize always goes to the student who needs it the most. Good luck with your Masters Gundula!

GPS drifter rip tracks!