Modeling of the circulation in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea with the Princeton Ocean Model

[摘要] The Princeton Ocean Model – POM (Blumberg and Mellor,1987) has been implemented in the Northwestern Mediterranean nested (inone-way off-line mode) to a general circulation model of the MediterraneanSea – OGCM (Pinardi and Masetti, 2000; Demirov and Pinardi, 2002) in orderto investigate if this model configuration is capable of reproducing themajor features of the circulation as known from observations and to improvewhat has been made by previous numerical modeling works. According to themodel results, the large-scale cyclonic circulation in the northern part ofthe Northwestern Mediterranean is, at least in the upper layers, lesscoherent in winter and spring than in summer and autumn. Furthermore, thereis evidence that the mesoscale structure (eddies and meanders) is, duringall year, a significant dynamic characteristic in this region of theMediterranean Sea. Finally, concerning the circulation in the lower layers,the model results have confirmed that Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) andWestern Mediterranean Deep Water (WMDW) follow essentially a cyclonic pathduring all year.

[学科分类] 海洋学与技术