Rip Current Circulation Simulator (2D Top-Down)

Breaking waves push water shoreward across a sandbar, and that water returns to sea wherever the bar is weakest — a narrow gap or channel. This top-down map view shows that nearshore circulation cell directly from above: alongshore feeder currents driven by radiation-stress gradients converge on each gap, accelerate through the neck by mass continuity into a fast rip jet, and fan out offshore in the rip head before a slow diffuse flow closes the loop back over the bar. Adjust the breaking wave height, the bar's gap width and spacing, and bottom friction to see how each control changes the feeder-current speed and the rip jet speed, tracked live, while hundreds of dye tracers reveal the whole flow pattern in real time. Drag to pan and scroll to zoom in on any single rip channel.