Abstract
Abstract. We present Nemo-Nordic, a Baltic and North Sea model based on the NEMO ocean engine. Surrounded by highly industrialized countries, the Baltic and North seas and their assets associated with shipping, fishing and tourism are vulnerable to anthropogenic pressure and climate change. Ocean models providing reliable forecasts and enabling climatic studies are important tools for the shipping infrastructure and to get a better understanding of the effects of climate change on the marine ecosystems. Nemo-Nordic is intended to be a tool for both short-term and long-term simulations and to be used for ocean forecasting as well as process and climatic studies. Here, the scientific and technical choices within Nemo-Nordic are introduced, and the reasons behind the design of the model and its domain and the inclusion of the two seas are explained. The model's ability to represent barotropic and baroclinic dynamics, as well as the vertical structure of the water column, is presented. Biases are shown and discussed. The short-term capabilities of the model are presented, especially its capabilities to represent sea level on an hourly timescale with a high degree of accuracy. We also show that the model can represent longer timescales, with a focus on the major Baltic inflows and the variability in deep-water salinity in the Baltic Sea.
Highlights
The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed sea that is heavily influenced by freshwater input from large continental rivers
In comparisons with previous ocean models such as that used by Meier (2004), which used a linear free surface, these features enable NemoNordic to run in regions of high tidal amplitude like the North Sea and the English Channel
In this article we provide a detailed description of the dynamic features of Nemo-Nordic, a newly developed joint setup for the Baltic Sea and the North Sea
Summary
The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed sea that is heavily influenced by freshwater input from large continental rivers. Nemo-Nordic has been designed to be an advanced compromise to provide forecasts or study Baltic and/or North Sea dynamics at various timescales (operational or climate timescales), with a representation of processes occurring in both basins, including overflows and sea ice, within a reasonable range of computing resources. The inclusion of both seas makes it possible to study the exchange between the two seas because the boundary conditions of the model are far enough from where this exchange occurs, unlike, for example, a Baltic Sea only ocean model (Meier et al, 2003). Further developments are being made regarding Nemo-Nordic, such as wind wave coupling, which will keep this ocean modelling configuration at a state-of-the-art level when it comes to Baltic and North Sea modelling
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