An eddy resolving numerical study of the general circulation and deep-water formation in the Adriatic Sea

Abstract

General circulation and deep-water formation (DWF) processes in the Adriatic basin in a climatological year were numerically simulated in a high-resolution (1/20th of a degree) implementation of the Princeton Ocean Model (POM). The “perpetual” year atmospheric data were computed from the ECMWF Reanalysis data (1°×1°) covering the period 1979–1994. The model reproduces the main basin features of the general circulation, water mass distribution and their seasonal variability. The Adriatic Deep Water exiting through the Otranto Strait is produced with two different mechanisms inside the basin: (a) by open ocean deep convection over the Southern Adriatic Pit and Middle Adriatic Pit (b) on the continental shelf of the Northern and Middle Adriatic. The estimated contributions of both mechanisms suggest that 82% of the Adriatic Deep Water is formed inside the Southern Adriatic Pit, while all the higher density water in this water mass comes from the northern regions. The role of mesoscale eddies at the periphery of the dense-water chimney in the Southern Adriatic Pit was examined and their contribution to the lateral buoyancy flux, during the convection process, found to be small. The DWF rate at Otranto Strait is 0.28 Sv with σ θ over 29.15. The sensitivity of the DWF processes to interannual variability of the buoyancy forcing and river runoff was assessed with a number of process-study numerical experiments. In these experiments the effect of an imposed “extreme” buoyancy forcing during 1 year, on the DWF rates, was to modify them during the specific year, but the effects were still present in the following normal climatological year. This shows that the DWF rates and their mass characteristics at a specific year depend not only on the atmospheric conditions prevailing that specific year but on the previous year's as well, thus leading to the concept of a “memory” of the basin.