Numerical simulation and prediction of coastal ocean circulation

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5547463

Chen, P

Numerical simulation and prediction of coastal ocean circulation have been conducted in three cases. 1. A process-oriented modeling study is conducted to study the interaction of a western boundary current (WBC) with coastal water, and its responses to upstream topographic irregularities. It is hypothesized that the interaction of propagating WBC frontal waves and topographic Rossby waves are responsible for upstream variability. 2. A simulation of meanders and eddies in the Norwegian Coastal Current (NCC) for February and March of 1988 is conducted with a newly developed nested dynamic interactive model. The model employs a coarse-grid, large domain to account for non-local forcing and a fine-grid nested domain to resolve meanders and eddies. The model is forced by wind stresses, heat fluxes and atmospheric pressure corresponding Feb/March of 1988, and accounts for river/fjord discharges, open ocean inflow and outflow, and M[sub 2] tides. The simulation reproduced fairly well the observed circulation, tides, and salinity features in the North Sea, Norwegian Trench and NCC region in the large domain and fairly realistic meanders and eddies in the NCC in the nested region. 3. A methodology for practical coastal ocean hindcast/forecast is developed, taking advantage of the disparate time scales of various forcing and considering wind to be the dominant factor in affecting density fluctuation in the time scale of 1 to 10 days. The density field obtained from a prognostic simulation is analyzed by the empirical orthogonal function method (EOF), and correlated with the wind; these information are then used to drive a circulation model which excludes the density calculation. The method is applied to hindcast the circulation in the New York Bight for spring and summer season of 1988. The hindcast fields compare favorably with the results obtained from the prognostic circulation model.

• Research Organization: Stevens Inst. of Tech., Hoboken, NJ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5547463
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540310* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
AIR-WATER INTERACTIONS
ATLANTIC OCEAN
COASTAL WATERS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
CONTINENTAL SLOPE
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
EUROPE
FORECASTING
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
HEAT FLUX
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METEOROLOGY
MID-ATLANTIC BIGHT
NEW YORK BIGHT
NORTH SEA
NORWAY
OCEANIC CIRCULATION
SALINITY
SCANDINAVIA
SEAS
SIMULATION
SURFACE WATERS
WESTERN EUROPE
WIND