A two-way nested-grid ocean-circulation model for the Meso-American Barrier Reef System

Abstract

A two-way nested-grid ocean-circulation model is developed for the Meso-American Barrier Reef System (MBRS), using a newly developed two-way interactive nesting technique. The unique feature of this new nesting technique is its use of the semi-prognostic method (Sheng et al. 2001) to exchange information between different grids through the model momentum equations. The nested-grid model for the MBRS has a fine-resolution inner model embedded in a coarse-resolution outer model. The outer model is the western Caribbean Sea model developed by Sheng and Tang (2003), with a horizontal resolution of roughly 19 km. The inner model domain covers the northwest Caribbean Sea (NWCS) between 79°W and 89°W and between 15.5°N and 22°N, with a horizontal resolution of roughly 6 km. The nested-grid ocean model is initialized with the January mean temperature and salinity and forced by the monthly mean COADS (comprehensive ocean-atmosphere data set) wind stress and surface heat flux. The model sea-surface salinity is restored to the monthly mean climatology. The nested-grid model is integrated for 2 years and the second-year model results are presented in this paper. The model-calculated annual-mean near-surface currents over the NWCS agree reasonably well with the time-mean near-surface currents inferred by Fratantoni (2001) from trajectories of the satellite-tracked 15-m drogued drifters in the 1990s. The two-way nested model is also used to quantify the role of local wind stress, local density gradients and boundary forcings of the outer model in driving the annual-mean circulation in the region.