Title Inflow at the western entrance of the Barents Sea Authors

• Main Authors: Barents Sea, Ingerid Fossum
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Web; met.no; Barents Sea; Bear Island; Western Entrance
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.613.6256; http://met.no/Forskning/Publikasjoner/metno_report/2008/filestore/metno_ifremer_report.pdf

Client(s) Client reference Considered are the volume fluxes and the water mass properties at the western entrance of the Barents Sea. Three different model simulations are done, and the results are intercom-pard. Two of the model runs are performed with a regional, σ-coordinate ice-ocean model with respectively 20km and 4km mesh size. Another model run is done with a global, z-coordinate, eddy-permitting (1/4◦) ice-ocean model. The model results are compared with hydrographic measurements and mooring records from the years 1997-2001. Although all the models produce relatively fresh water, in particular the two regional σ-coordinate mod-els, the Atlantic inflow from southwest is easily recognized. The Norwegian Coastal Cur-rent and the Bear Island Current are however poorly reproduced by the global z-coordinate model. This is explained by a poor representation of salinity gradients in the z-level model caused by the relaxation of sea surface salinity to climatology in this model. It should be kept in mind that the different models are designed for different purposes. The global, z-level model is mainly designed for climate purposes, while the other two models are more focused on the coastal water masses. The volume fluxes into the Barents Sea exhibit a strong seasonal cycle, with a maximum in the winter and a minimum in the summer. Focusing on the Atlantic water masses the simulated summer transports are in good agreement with what is observed, while the winter transports are 1-2 Sverdrups larger in the model results than in the observations.