Seasonal temperature and salinity fields in the Mediterranean Sea: Climatological analyses of a historical data set

Brasseur, Pierre; Beckers, Jean-Marie; Brankart, Jean-Michel; Schoenauen, R.

doi:10.1016/0967-0637(96)00012-x

Cited by 257 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…A flux correction term was added on all simulations, relaxing the computed temperatures to "climatological" values. In the sequence of nested simulations, these values were taken from a) the MODB-MED4 SST seasonal climatology (Brasseur et al, 1996) for the OGCM; b) the OGCM 8th year simulation for the ALERMO; c) the ALERMO 2nd year simulation for the North Aegean Model.…”

Section: Initial Conditions and Forcing Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High resolution simulations on the North Aegean Sea seasonal circulation

Kourafalou

Barbopoulos

2003

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. The seasonal characteristics of the circulation in the North Aegean Sea are examined with the aid of a climatological type simulation (three-year run with perpetual year forcing) on a fine resolution grid (2.5 km by 2.5 km). The model is based on the Princeton Ocean Model with a parameterisation of plume dynamics that is employed for the input of waters with hydrographic properties that are different than the properties of basin waters, as the Black Sea Water (BSW) outflow through the Dardanelles Strait and riverine sources. The model is nested with a sequence of coarser regional and basin-wide models that provide for the long-term interaction between the study area and the Eastern Mediterranean at large. The results are employed to discuss the response of the North Aegean to the important circulation forcing mechanisms in the region, namely wind stress, heat and salt fluxes, buoyancy due to rivers and the BSW outflow (which is low in salinity and occasionally low in temperature) and the interaction with the Southern Aegean. The high resolution allows for the detailed representation of the complicated topography that presides in the region. This helps produce a rich eddy field and it allows for variability in the pathways of BSW that has implications in the basin hydrography and circulation.

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Section: Initial Conditions and Forcing Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High resolution simulations on the North Aegean Sea seasonal circulation

Kourafalou

Barbopoulos

2003

Ann. Geophys.

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“…[19] The MED5-MODB data set [Brasseur et al, 1996] is used as an initial hydrological field. The data set contains temperature and salinity gridded at 1/4°resolution covering the entire Mediterranean and is available in four subsets representing the seasons.…”

Section: Boundary and Initial Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the baroclinic circulation in the area of the Sicily channel: The role of stratification and energy diagnostics

Napolitano¹,

Sannino²,

Artale³

et al. 2003

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] Aspects of the circulation of the Sicily channel region are studied with a highresolution, primitive equation, sigma coordinate model. This work is an attempt to study the process governing the purely baroclinic dynamics and its sensitivity to seasonal stratification, thus no atmospheric forcing is used. Two numerical experiments are analyzed using, as initial conditions, diagnostic velocity fields derived from the winter and summer climatological hydrologies. The quasi-steady state is characterized by circulation patterns, in the depth range of the Modified Atlantic Water (MAW) and the Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW), strongly controlled by mesoscale eddies and topography. Seasonal difference is found in the surface current which exhibits the major variability on the African side, downstream of Adventure Bank and the Ionian Slope where the absolute maximum occurs. The intermediate circulation instead does not show relevant seasonal differences. LIW enters through the two passages south of Malta Plateau and preferentially flows along the Sicilian shelf edge exiting over the northern sill. Its pathway is strongly controlled by subsurface cyclonic and anticyclonic cells. The results are in good agreement with observations. An energy diagnostics is applied to model results and sheds important light on dynamical characteristics of the mesoscale eddy field and indicates seasonal differences in the energetic exchange with the mean flow. The analysis of the mean (MKE) and eddy (EKE) kinetic energy, the transfer terms between energy compartments and the eddy momentum flux divergence indicates how eddies are strongly energetic in summer and exchange energy more efficiently with the mean flow. In the quasi-steady state MAW volume transport and MKE and EKE fluctuations are strongly correlated. This result suggests that mesoscale motions can control up to 40% of volume transport variability.INDEX TERMS: 4255 Oceanography: General: Numerical modeling; 4512 Oceanography: Physical: Currents; 4520 Oceanography: Physical: Eddies and mesoscale processes; KEYWORDS: Mediterranean, Sicily Strait, mesoscale, modeling Citation: Napolitano, E., G. Sannino, V. Artale, and S. Marullo, Modeling the baroclinic circulation in the area of the Sicily channel: The role of stratification and energy diagnostics,

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“…The model is forced by ECMWF 6-hourly operational analyses of 10 m-wind and 2 m-air temperature, also used in the surface heat flux calculation. Surface salinity is relaxed to the MED6 climatology (Brasseur et al, 1996;Fichaut et al, 1998).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing System Simulation Experiments for the assessment of temperature sampling strategies in the Mediterranean Sea

Raicich

Rampazzo

2003

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. For the first time in the Mediterranean Sea various temperature sampling strategies are studied and compared to each other by means of the Observing System Simulation Experiment technique. Their usefulness in the framework of the Mediterranean Forecasting System (MFS) is assessed by quantifying their impact in a Mediterranean General Circulation Model in numerical twin experiments via univariate data assimilation of temperature profiles in summer and winter conditions. Data assimilation is performed by means of the optimal interpolation algorithm implemented in the SOFA (System for Ocean Forecasting and Analysis) code.The sampling strategies studied here include various combinations of eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) profiles collected along Volunteer Observing Ship (VOS) tracks, Airborne XBTs (AXBTs) and sea surface temperatures. The actual sampling strategy adopted in the MFS Pilot Project during the Targeted Operational Period (TOP, winter-spring 2000) is also studied.The data impact is quantified by the error reduction relative to the free run. The most effective sampling strategies determine 25-40% error reduction, depending on the season, the geographic area and the depth range. A qualitative relationship can be recognized in terms of the spread of information from the data positions, between basin circulation features and spatial patterns of the error reduction fields, as a function of different spatial and seasonal characteristics of the dynamics. The largest error reductions are observed when samplings are characterized by extensive spatial coverages, as in the cases of AXBTs and the combination of XBTs and surface temperatures. The sampling strategy adopted during the TOP is characterized by little impact, as a consequence of a sampling frequency that is too low.

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Seasonal temperature and salinity fields in the Mediterranean Sea: Climatological analyses of a historical data set

Cited by 257 publications

References 22 publications

High resolution simulations on the North Aegean Sea seasonal circulation

High resolution simulations on the North Aegean Sea seasonal circulation

Modeling the baroclinic circulation in the area of the Sicily channel: The role of stratification and energy diagnostics

Observing System Simulation Experiments for the assessment of temperature sampling strategies in the Mediterranean Sea

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