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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d1ea6cdf033d4444b1a9a5a8dd09f534 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 F. U. Schwarzkopf A. Biastoch C. W. Böning J. Chanut J. V. Durgadoo K. Getzlaff J. Harlaß J. K. Rieck C. Roth M. M. Scheinert R. Schubert 2019-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 https://doaj.org/article/d1ea6cdf033d4444b1a9a5a8dd09f534 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://www.geosci-model-dev.net/12/3329/2019/gmd-12-3329-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1991-959X https://doaj.org/toc/1991-9603 doi:10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 1991-959X 1991-9603 https://doaj.org/article/d1ea6cdf033d4444b1a9a5a8dd09f534 Geoscientific Model Development, Vol 12, Pp 3329-3355 (2019) Geology QE1-996.5 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 2022-12-30T22:12:45Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Drake Passage Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Drake Passage Indian Geoscientific Model Development 12 7 3329 3355 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Geology QE1-996.5 F. U. Schwarzkopf A. Biastoch C. W. Böning J. Chanut J. V. Durgadoo K. Getzlaff J. Harlaß J. K. Rieck C. Roth M. M. Scheinert R. Schubert The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations |
topic_facet |
Geology QE1-996.5 |
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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
F. U. Schwarzkopf A. Biastoch C. W. Böning J. Chanut J. V. Durgadoo K. Getzlaff J. Harlaß J. K. Rieck C. Roth M. M. Scheinert R. Schubert |
author_facet |
F. U. Schwarzkopf A. Biastoch C. W. Böning J. Chanut J. V. Durgadoo K. Getzlaff J. Harlaß J. K. Rieck C. Roth M. M. Scheinert R. Schubert |
author_sort |
F. U. Schwarzkopf |
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 |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 https://doaj.org/article/d1ea6cdf033d4444b1a9a5a8dd09f534 |
geographic |
Drake Passage Indian |
geographic_facet |
Drake Passage Indian |
genre |
Drake Passage Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Drake Passage Sea ice |
op_source |
Geoscientific Model Development, Vol 12, Pp 3329-3355 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.geosci-model-dev.net/12/3329/2019/gmd-12-3329-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1991-959X https://doaj.org/toc/1991-9603 doi:10.5194/gmd-12-3329-2019 1991-959X 1991-9603 https://doaj.org/article/d1ea6cdf033d4444b1a9a5a8dd09f534 |
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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1766398238822236160 |