The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations

The Agulhas Current, the western boundary current of the South Indian Ocean, has been shown to play an important role in the connectivity between the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The greater Agulhas Current system is highly dominated by mesoscale dynamics. To investigate their influence on the region...

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Published in:Geoscientific Model Development
Main Authors: Schwarzkopf, Franziska U., Biastoch, Arne, Böning, Claus W., Chanut, Jérôme, Durgadoo, Jonathan V., Getzlaff, Klaus, Harlaß, Jan, Rieck, Jan K., Roth, Christina, Scheinert, Markus M., Schubert, René
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019
https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/12/3329/2019/
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spelling ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:gmd73335 2023-05-15T16:02:34+02:00 The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations Schwarzkopf, Franziska U. Biastoch, Arne Böning, Claus W. Chanut, Jérôme Durgadoo, Jonathan V. Getzlaff, Klaus Harlaß, Jan Rieck, Jan K. Roth, Christina Scheinert, Markus M. Schubert, René 2019-07-29 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/12/3329/2019/ eng eng doi:10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/12/3329/2019/ eISSN: 1991-9603 Text 2019 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 2020-07-20T16:22:44Z The Agulhas Current, the western boundary current of the South Indian Ocean, has been shown to play an important role in the connectivity between the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The greater Agulhas Current system is highly dominated by mesoscale dynamics. To investigate their influence on the regional and global circulations, a family of high-resolution ocean general circulation model configurations based on the NEMO code has been developed. Horizontal resolution refinement is achieved by embedding “nests” covering the South Atlantic and the western Indian oceans at 1/10 ∘ (INALT10) and 1/20 ∘ (INALT20) within global hosts with coarser resolutions. Nests and hosts are connected through two-way interaction, allowing the nests not only to receive boundary conditions from their respective host but also to feed back the impact of regional dynamics onto the global ocean. A double-nested configuration at 1/60 ∘ resolution (INALT60) has been developed to gain insights into submesoscale processes within the Agulhas Current system. Large-scale measures such as the Drake Passage transport and the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation are rather robust among the different configurations, indicating the important role of the hosts in providing a consistent embedment of the regionally refined grids into the global circulation. The dynamics of the Agulhas Current system strongly depend on the representation of mesoscale processes. Both the southward-flowing Agulhas Current and the northward-flowing Agulhas Undercurrent increase in strength with increasing resolution towards more realistic values, which suggests the importance of improving mesoscale dynamics as well as bathymetric slopes along this narrow western boundary current regime. The exploration of numerical choices such as lateral boundary conditions and details of the implementation of surface wind stress forcing demonstrates the range of solutions within any given configuration. Text Drake Passage Sea ice Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Drake Passage Indian Geoscientific Model Development 12 7 3329 3355
institution Open Polar
collection Copernicus Publications: E-Journals
op_collection_id ftcopernicus
language English
description The Agulhas Current, the western boundary current of the South Indian Ocean, has been shown to play an important role in the connectivity between the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The greater Agulhas Current system is highly dominated by mesoscale dynamics. To investigate their influence on the regional and global circulations, a family of high-resolution ocean general circulation model configurations based on the NEMO code has been developed. Horizontal resolution refinement is achieved by embedding “nests” covering the South Atlantic and the western Indian oceans at 1/10 ∘ (INALT10) and 1/20 ∘ (INALT20) within global hosts with coarser resolutions. Nests and hosts are connected through two-way interaction, allowing the nests not only to receive boundary conditions from their respective host but also to feed back the impact of regional dynamics onto the global ocean. A double-nested configuration at 1/60 ∘ resolution (INALT60) has been developed to gain insights into submesoscale processes within the Agulhas Current system. Large-scale measures such as the Drake Passage transport and the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation are rather robust among the different configurations, indicating the important role of the hosts in providing a consistent embedment of the regionally refined grids into the global circulation. The dynamics of the Agulhas Current system strongly depend on the representation of mesoscale processes. Both the southward-flowing Agulhas Current and the northward-flowing Agulhas Undercurrent increase in strength with increasing resolution towards more realistic values, which suggests the importance of improving mesoscale dynamics as well as bathymetric slopes along this narrow western boundary current regime. The exploration of numerical choices such as lateral boundary conditions and details of the implementation of surface wind stress forcing demonstrates the range of solutions within any given configuration.
format Text
author Schwarzkopf, Franziska U.
Biastoch, Arne
Böning, Claus W.
Chanut, Jérôme
Durgadoo, Jonathan V.
Getzlaff, Klaus
Harlaß, Jan
Rieck, Jan K.
Roth, Christina
Scheinert, Markus M.
Schubert, René
spellingShingle Schwarzkopf, Franziska U.
Biastoch, Arne
Böning, Claus W.
Chanut, Jérôme
Durgadoo, Jonathan V.
Getzlaff, Klaus
Harlaß, Jan
Rieck, Jan K.
Roth, Christina
Scheinert, Markus M.
Schubert, René
The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations
author_facet Schwarzkopf, Franziska U.
Biastoch, Arne
Böning, Claus W.
Chanut, Jérôme
Durgadoo, Jonathan V.
Getzlaff, Klaus
Harlaß, Jan
Rieck, Jan K.
Roth, Christina
Scheinert, Markus M.
Schubert, René
author_sort Schwarzkopf, Franziska U.
title The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations
title_short The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations
title_full The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations
title_fullStr The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations
title_full_unstemmed The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations
title_sort inalt family – a set of high-resolution nests for the agulhas current system within global nemo ocean/sea-ice configurations
publishDate 2019
url https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019
https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/12/3329/2019/
geographic Drake Passage
Indian
geographic_facet Drake Passage
Indian
genre Drake Passage
Sea ice
genre_facet Drake Passage
Sea ice
op_source eISSN: 1991-9603
op_relation doi:10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019
https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/12/3329/2019/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019
container_title Geoscientific Model Development
container_volume 12
container_issue 7
container_start_page 3329
op_container_end_page 3355
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