Numerical Modeling of Tidal Phenomena of the Penzhinskaya Bay

Abstract

In this study, the Delft3D-Flow hydrodynamic model was used to determine the characteristics of the main tidal waves and currents in the Penzhina Bay (Sea of Okhotsk, Russia). The initial and boundary conditions are set according to the TPXO9 model data, the salinity and water temperature for each model layer are set based on the reanalysis data of the HYCOM ocean general circulation model, with a time step of 3 h. E-uropean Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ECMWF (European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) reanalysis ERA-5 was used as meteoforcing. Modeling was performed for the ice-free period from May to September 2005. Maps of cotidal lines, tidal ellipses, and reversibility coefficient for the main tide waves: semidiurnal wave M2 and diurnal wave K1 were constructed. The model was verified by comparing the published and calculated harmonic components for 9 sea level monitoring points located in the Penzhina Bay. Conformance evaluation generally shows a high degree of consistency between model and reference data. The values of the coefficient of determination R2 between the series formed by the model and published harmonic components are in the range of 0.96–0.99. According to the magnitude of relative errors, the simulation results are divided into two consistency categories – high (1.48–2.14%) and satisfactory (2.93–4.27%). Spatial patterns of distribution for the values of relative errors were not found. A certain inconsistency in the results is presumably due to the time discretization of the observation time support and the short sea level monitoring data series used to calculate the published harmonic components at the Penzhina Bay.