Joint Seminar: The characteristics of tides and their effects on the general circulation in the Mediterranean Sea

The effects of tides on the general circulation in the Mediterranean Sea, with a particular focus on the vertical impacts, was investigated using a numerical modelling approach. In this work, the characteristics of tides in the Mediterranean Sea were investigated using the hydrodynamic model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) version 3.6, corresponding to the core of the Mediterranean physical operational system in the framework of the Copernicus Monitoring Environment Marine Service (CMEMS) system, a baroclinic hydrodynamic model for the Mediterranean Sea, by means of twin experiments with and without tides, integrated over five years. Amplitudes of tides in the region are typically low, but an analysis of energetics demonstrates that tides have effects across many spatial and temporal scales in the basin, including nonlinear effects at high frequencies and changes to kinetic energy at near-inertial frequencies. An investigation of horizontal and vertical currents at deeper levels also revealed the presence of internal waves at tidal frequencies in the western Mediterranean, while in the eastern Mediterranean, both inertial waves and internal tides appear to have impacts on vertical velocity. The transport of salt through the Gibraltar Strait was compared to that of a two-layer box model, which highlighted the usefulness of such a simple model in representing the flux exchanges in the strait, as well as demonstrating the importance of tidal dynamics and horizontal diffusion on salinity transport.

Date

29.03.2023

Time

13:30 h

Place

Bundesstr. 53, room 022/023
Seminar Room 022/023, Ground Floor, Bundesstrasse 53, 20146 Hamburg, Hamburg

Organizers

Bo Liu

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