Variability of water exchanges through the Strait of Hormuz

Vasou, Panagiotis; Vervatis, Vassilios; Krokos, George; Hoteit, Ibrahim; Sofianos, Sarantis

doi:10.1007/s10236-020-01384-2

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…A significant percentage of straits are both economically and strategically important, e.g., the Taiwan Strait, the Hormuz Strait, and the Gibraltar Strait. Straits are the key regions where direct energy and substance exchanges between two water bodies occur; therefore, strait hydrodynamics has attracted unprecedented attention from interdisciplinary researchers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Structure of Water Exchange at the Entrance of a Tide-Dominated Strait

et al. 2022

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In summer, westward residual flow in the Qiongzhou Strait (QS) drives a water transport through the strait into the Beibu Gulf, playing a vital role in modifying the gulf-scale circulation. By utilizing multi-source observations, realistic simulations, as well as idealized modeling, the water exchange process at the western entrance of the QS was explored from the perspective of thermal structure. High-resolution satellite sea-surface temperature images captured an interesting thermal phenomenon in the studied region, i.e., a trident-shaped warm water tongue. Validations of numerical results suggested satisfactory model performance in reproducing the trident-shaped warm water tongue. Modeling results together with cruise observations indicates extremely weak stratification in the studied region, which is a result of local intense tidal mixing. The cold upwelling water developed at the eastern side of the strait arrived at the western entrance by the westward residual flow, and then encountered and communicated with the well-mixed warm gulf water there. The alternatively deep/shallow topography (sea trough/ridge) triggers spatial variability in tidal current intensity: stronger currents over the deep area with weaker flow above the shallow region leads to alternatively warm/cold thermal distribution in the cross-isobath direction. Further investigation demonstrates that, through modifying the circulation and regulating the intensity of upwelling on the eastern side of the QS, wind also makes a significant contribution to the thermal distribution at the western entrance of the QS.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Structure of Water Exchange at the Entrance of a Tide-Dominated Strait

et al. 2022

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“…Shapiro et al (2017) used the NEMO ocean model with a resolution of ≈ 1.8 km and 52 hybrid s-z levels (Shapiro et al, 2013) to characterise the seasonal variability of the dense outflow from the Gulf into the Gulf of Oman. Likewise, Vasou et al (2020) used NEMO with a resolution of ≈ 2.6 km and 50 z-levels with partial steps to study the variability of the water mass exchange between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Recently, Lorenz et al (2020) applied the General Estuarine Transport Model (GETM; Klingbeil and Burchard (2013)) with a resolution of ≈ 1.8 km and 40 adaptive vertical layers (Hofmeister et al, 2010) to investigate the properties of the exchange flow of the Gulf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

GULF18, a high-resolution NEMO-based tidal ocean model of the Arabian/Persian Gulf

Bruciaferri

Tonani²,

Ascione³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. The sensitivity of a shelf sea model of the Gulf area to changes in the bathymetry, lateral and vertical resolution, vertical coordinates and external forcing is explored. Two new Gulf models with a resolution of 1.8 km named GULF18-3.6 and GULF18-4.0 differing only in the vertical coordinate system and the NEMO codebase employed (NEMO-3.6 and NEMO-4.0.4, respectively) are introduced. We compare them against the existing 4 km PGM4 model, which is based on NEMO-3.4 and is developed and used by the Met Office. PGM4 and GULF18-3.6 use a similar type of quasi-terrain-following vertical levels while GULF18-4.0 employs the multi-envelope method to discretise the model domain in the vertical direction. Our assessment compares non-assimilative hindcast simulations of the three Gulf models for the period 2014–2017 against available observations of tides, hydrography and surface currents. Numerical results indicate that both high resolution models have higher skill than PGM4 in representing the sea surface temperature and the water column stratification on the shelf. In addition, in the proximity of the shelf-break and the deep part of the domain GULF18-4.0 generally presents the highest accuracy, demonstrating the benefit of optimising the vertical grid for the leading physical processes. For the tides and the surface currents the three models give comparable results. However, our tidal harmonic analysis suggests that future work may be needed in order to get real benefit from using a more realistic bottom topography as in the case of the GULF18 models.

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“…The eastern side of the AG is surrounded by complex mountain ranges (up to ∼4 km) high and deep valleys, whereas the western side is mostly flat. The AG is shallow, particularly in its eastern part (with depths less than 10 m) and in its southern and western parts (with depths less than 20 m), and is relatively steeper (about 130 m) in the northern parts (Al Azhar et al, 2016; Vasou et al, 2020). The AG circulation and variability are dominated by wind‐driven baroclinic flow and the water‐mass exchange through the Strait of Hormuz (Vasou et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The AG is shallow, particularly in its eastern part (with depths less than 10 m) and in its southern and western parts (with depths less than 20 m), and is relatively steeper (about 130 m) in the northern parts (Al Azhar et al, 2016; Vasou et al, 2020). The AG circulation and variability are dominated by wind‐driven baroclinic flow and the water‐mass exchange through the Strait of Hormuz (Vasou et al, 2020). The synoptic scale wind system further controls the intensity of net transport and exchange processes with the Indian Ocean.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Precipitation along the coastal part of Iran and over the adjacent mountains (of about 100–125 mm/year) is usually 60% higher than the west of the AG, mainly due to orographic lifting. The presence of cold and dry northwesterly winds at the surface level amplifies evaporation and net heat loss, leading to an increase in salinity (Thoppil & Hogan, 2010; Vasou et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High‐resolution climate characteristics of the Arabian Gulf based on a validated regional reanalysis

Dasari

Viswanadhapalli

Langodan

et al. 2022

Meteorological Applications

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The regional climate of the Arabian Gulf (AG) and its variability are examined based on a 40-year (1980-2019), 5-km regional reanalysis of the Arabian Peninsula (AP reanalysis). The AP reanalysis fields were first validated against the available observations over the AG, suggesting that this high-resolution reanalysis well reproduces the spatio-temporal features of the AG atmospheric circulations. The validated AP reanalysis fields were then analysed to examine the climatic characteristics over the AG including the monthly mean, maximum and minimum temperatures, and the seasonal variations in winds, relative humidity and rainfall over the AG. The AG climate is mostly dry between May and October, and experiences moderate rainfall between December and January. The higher (lower) pressure difference between the northwest and southeast AG during summer (winter) generates the northwesterly Shamal winds over the north (central) AG. The mean Shamal winds are relatively stronger (weaker) and prolonged (shorter) during summer (winter); however, the short lived Shamal jet events in winter can be occasionally stronger than summer. In terms of interannual variability, the Shamal winds are stronger and more persistent in summer during El Niño years and in winter during La Niña years. These differences are mainly associated with changes in temperature gradients between the eastern AG and northwestern AP.

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Variability of water exchanges through the Strait of Hormuz

Cited by 12 publications

References 39 publications

Thermal Structure of Water Exchange at the Entrance of a Tide-Dominated Strait

Thermal Structure of Water Exchange at the Entrance of a Tide-Dominated Strait

GULF18, a high-resolution NEMO-based tidal ocean model of the Arabian/Persian Gulf

High‐resolution climate characteristics of the Arabian Gulf based on a validated regional reanalysis

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