The effect of the temporal resolution of the wind forcing on a central Mediterranean Sea model

Abstract

The impact of the wind forcing temporal resolution in the central Mediterranean Sea is addressed using a numerical ocean circulation model. The model uses interactive surface fluxes based on the ERA-Interim 6-hourly atmospheric reanalyses except for the 10 m wind for which ERA5 hourly reanalyses are used. Additional temporal resolution (2, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h) wind sets are deduced from the ERA5 hourly data. An ensemble of simulations (six members) is then performed where only the temporal resolution of the wind forcing is changed. The impact of the temporal resolution is studied based on this set of simulations. The dependence of the surface wind stress and heat flux on the wind resolution is derived based on an analytical expression where the Weibull distribution is used to characterise the probability density function of the wind speed. Results from the analytical model are found close to those from the numerical model when a linear increase of the exchange coefficients with the wind speed is considered. Power input into the sea and surface heat loss both increase with the increase of the temporal resolution but at lower rates when approaching hourly forcing values. The increase of the latent heat loss at these high resolutions is small (~−0.8 Wm-2) but still important, around 10–20% the Mediterranean basin heat budget (−5 to −7 Wm-2). The increase of the wind forcing temporal resolution decreases the sea surface temperature (SST) and increases the sea surface salinity (SSS) with largest values in the shallow area of the Gulf of Gabès (eastern coast of Tunisia). A decrease of SSS is however noticed in some areas mainly northwest of the Tunisia coast. Hydrographical changes are also found in the Tunisia-Sicily channel. They are characterised by mesoscale structures with no remarkable change of the major water veins.