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Hydrodynamic modelling of mesoscale eddies in the Black Sea

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Abstract

A three dimensional structure of mesoscale circulation in the Black Sea is simulated using the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Ocean Modelling System. A number of sensitivity tests reveal the response of the model to changes in the horizontal resolution, time steps, and diffusion coefficients. Three numerical grids are examined with x-fine (3.2 km), fine (6.7 km) and coarse (25 km) resolution. It is found that the coarse grid significantly overestimates the energy of the currents and is not adequate even for the study of basin-scale circulation. The x-fine grid, on the other hand, does not give significant advantages compared to the fine grid, and the latter is used for the bulk of simulations. The most adequate parameters are chosen from the sensitivity study and used to model both the basin-scale circulation and day-to-day variability of mesoscale currents for the months of May and June of 2000. The model is forced with actual wind data every 6 h and monthly climatic data for evaporation, precipitation, heat fluxes and river run-off. The results of the fine grid model are compared favourably against the satellite imagery. The model adequately reproduces the general circulation and many mesoscale features including cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, jets and filaments in different parts of the Black Sea. The model gives a realistic geographical distribution and parameters of mesoscale currents, such as size, shape and evolution of the eddies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Joanna Staneva for providing monthly climatic data for temperature and salinity, heat fluxes, evaporation and precipitation. We kindly acknowledge Yury Ratner for providing interpolated wind data and Sergey Stanichny and Dmitry Soloviev for providing processed satellite SST images. We are thankful to Vladimir Ivanov for helpful discussions. This research was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT, Mexico)—Scholarship no. 153397 (C. Enriquez), the European Union grants, INTAS—01-460, INTAS −03-51-4620; and the RFBR grant 05-05-64686

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth, Ocean and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA, United Kingdom

    Cecilia E. Enriquez & Georgy I. Shapiro

  2. Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, 6 Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L3 5DA, United Kingdom

    Alejandro J. Souza

  3. P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, 36, NakhimovskyProspekt, 117997, Moscow, Russia

    Andrei G. Zatsepin

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  1. Cecilia E. Enriquez
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  2. Georgy I. Shapiro
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  3. Alejandro J. Souza
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  4. Andrei G. Zatsepin
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Correspondence to Georgy I. Shapiro.

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Responsible Editor: Paulo Salles

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Enriquez, C.E., Shapiro, G.I., Souza, A.J. et al. Hydrodynamic modelling of mesoscale eddies in the Black Sea. Ocean Dynamics 55, 476–489 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-005-0031-4

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