Numerical Ocean Model Research Articles

Mechanism for the recent ocean warming events on the Scotian Shelf of eastern Canada

In 2012, 2014, and 2015 anomalous warm events were observed in the subsurface waters in the Scotian Shelf region of eastern Canada. Monthly output from a high resolution numerical ocean model simulation of the North Atlantic ocean for the period 1990–2015 is used to investigate this phenomenon. It is found that the model shows skill in simulating the anomaly fields derived from various sources of data, and the observed warming trend over the last decade. From analysis of the model run it is found that the anomalies originate from the interaction between the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current at the tail of the Grand Banks (south of Newfoundland). This interaction results in the creation of anomalous warm/salty (or cold/fresh) eddies that travel east-to-west along the shelfbreak. These anomalies penetrate into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, onto the Scotian Shelf, and into the Gulf of Maine via deep channels along the shelfbreak. The observed warming trend can be attributed to an increase in the frequency of creation of warm anomalies during the last decade. Strong anomalous events are commonly observed in the data and model, and thus should be considered as part of the natural variability of the coupled atmosphere-ocean system.

Sensitivity of the regional ocean acidification and carbonate system in Puget Sound to ocean and freshwater inputs

While ocean acidification was first investigated as a global phenomenon, coastal acidification has received significant attention in recent years, as its impacts have been felt by different socio-economic sectors (e.g., high mortality of shellfish larvae in aquaculture farms). As a region that connects land and ocean, the Salish Sea (consisting of Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Georgia) receives inputs from many different sources (rivers, wastewater treatment plants, industrial waste treatment facilities, etc.), making these coastal waters vulnerable to acidification. Moreover, the lowering of pH in the Northeast Pacific Ocean also affects the Salish Sea, as more acidic waters get transported into the bottom waters of the straits and estuaries. Here, we use a numerical ocean model of the Salish Sea to improve our understanding of the carbonate system in Puget Sound; in particular, we studied the sensitivity of carbonate variables (e.g., dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, pH, saturation state of aragonite) to ocean and freshwater inputs. The model is an updated version of our FVCOM-ICM framework, with new carbonate-system and sediment modules. Sensitivity experiments altering concentrations at the open boundaries and freshwater sources indicate that not only ocean conditions entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but also the dilution of carbonate variables by freshwater sources, are key drivers of the carbonate system in Puget Sound.

Evaluation of Satellite and Reanalysis Wind Products with In Situ Wave Glider Wind Observations in the Southern Ocean

AbstractSurface ocean wind datasets are required to be of high spatial and temporal resolution and high precision to accurately force or be assimilated into coupled atmosphere–ocean numerical models and to understand ocean–atmospheric processes. In situ observed sea surface winds from the Southern Ocean are scarce and, consequently, the validity of simulation models is often questionable. Multiple wind data products were compared to the first known high-resolution in situ measurements of wind speed from Wave Glider (WG) deployments in the Southern Ocean with the intent to determine which blended satellite or reanalysis product best represents the magnitude and variability of the observed wind field. Results show that the ECMWF reanalysis product is the most accurate in representing the temporal variability of winds, exhibiting consistently higher correlation coefficients with in situ data across all wind speed categories. However, the NCEP–DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis product matches in situ trends of deviation from the mean and performs best in depicting the mean wind state, especially during high wind states. The ECMWF product also leads to smaller differences in wind speeds from the in situ data, while CFSv2 showed slightly higher biases and a greater RMSE. The SeaWinds (SW) product consistently performed poorly at representing the mean or wind stress variability compared to those observed by the WG. Overall, the study shows autonomous surface vehicles provide valuable observations by which to validate, understand, and potentially assist in correcting satellite/reanalysis products, particularly in remote regions, where few in situ estimates exist.

Odessa Tsunami of 27 June 2014: Observations and Numerical Modelling

On 27 June, a 1–2-m high wave struck the beaches of Odessa, the third largest Ukrainian city, and the neighbouring port-town Illichevsk (northwestern Black Sea). Throughout the day, prominent seiche oscillations were observed in several other ports of the Black Sea. Tsunamigenic synoptic conditions were found over the Black Sea, stretching from Romania in the west to the Crimean Peninsula in the east. Intense air pressure disturbances and convective thunderstorm clouds were associated with these conditions; right at the time of the event, a 1.5-hPa air pressure jump was recorded at Odessa and a few hours earlier in Romania. We have utilized a barotropic ocean numerical model to test two hypotheses: (1) a tsunami-like wave was generated by an air pressure disturbance propagating directly over Odessa (“Experiment 1”); (2) a tsunami-like wave was generated by an air pressure disturbance propagating offshore, approximately 200 km to the south of Odessa, and along the shelf break (“Experiment 2”). Both experiments decisively confirm the meteorological origin of the tsunami-like waves on the coast of Odessa and imply that intensified long ocean waves in this region were generated via the Proudman resonance mechanism while propagating over the northwestern Black Sea shelf. The “Odessa tsunami” of 27 June 2014 was identified as a “beach meteotsunami”, similar to events regularly observed on the beaches of Florida, USA, but different from the “harbour meteotsunamis”, which occurred 1–3 days earlier in Ciutadella (Baleares, Spain), Mazara del Vallo (Sicily, Italy) and Vela Luka (Croatia) in the Mediterranean Sea, despite that they were associated with the same atmospheric system moving over the Mediterranean/Black Sea region on 23–27 June 2014.

Poleward propagation of near-inertial waves induced by fluctuating winds over a baroclinically unstable zonal jet

We investigate the excitation and radiation of near-inertial internal gravity waves continuously excited by a latitudinally confined temporally fluctuating wind in a numerical model of a stratified ocean on a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$-plane at mid-latitude. The surface wind forcing contains both high- and low-frequency components which excite propagating waves and a baroclinically unstable zonal jet respectively. Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) ray theory implies that near-inertial waves propagate strictly towards the equator. We seek to refine this view here by (i) adding the non-traditional Coriolis force (accounting for the horizontal component of the Earth’s rotation) into the equations of motion, in order to allow poleward sub-inertial propagation to occur, and (ii) relaxing the conceptual constraint of no zonal variability, to allow the zonal jet to undergo instability, to meander and to sustain an active field of mesoscale eddies, potentially impacting the excitation of near-inertial waves. The key results are that, while (i) permits weakly stratified waveguides with sub-inertial poleward wave propagation to develop in accord with theory, the sub-inertial energy flux observed is very small compared with the equatorward flux. Thus, in terms of energy radiated from the storm track, non-traditional effects are small for wind-driven near-inertial waves. The consequences of (ii) are much more pronounced. Refinement (ii) produces a radiating wave field that is bidirectional, i.e. with both poleward and equatorward components. We show that the presence of regions of significant background vorticity with horizontal scales significantly smaller than the width of the storm track provides the scale selection mechanism to excite waves with sufficiently super-inertial frequencies to propagate poleward distances of the order of 1000 km.

Mixed layer depth calculation in deep convection regions in ocean numerical models

Mixed Layer Depths (MLDs) diagnosed by conventional numerical models are generally based on a density difference with the surface (e.g., 0.01 kg.m−3). However, the temperature-salinity compensation and the lack of vertical resolution contribute to over-estimated MLD, especially in regions of deep convection. In the present work, we examined the diagnostic MLD, associated with the deep convection of the Labrador Sea Water (LSW), calculated with a simple density difference criterion. The over-estimated MLD led us to develop a new tool, based on an observational approach, to recalculate MLD from model output. We used an eddy-permitting, 1/12° regional configuration of the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) to test and discuss our newly defined MLD. We compared our new MLD with that from observations, and we showed a major improvement with our new algorithm. To show the new MLD is not dependent on a single model and its horizontal resolution, we extended our analysis to include 1/4° eddy-permitting simulations, and simulations using the Modular Ocean Model (MOM) model.

Ocean Surface Current Inversion Method for a Doppler Scatterometer

The ocean surface current is a very important parameter of ocean dynamic environment. It is connected to global climate change, marine environment forecasting, marine navigation, engineering security, and so on. The observation and prediction of ocean surface current have attracted more and more concern. Doppler Scatterometer (DopScat) is a new type of radar for ocean surface wind and current field remote sensing. The ocean surface current inversion method of DopScat impacts the measurement accuracy directly. In this paper, we establish the simulation model of a DopScat and provide the radial velocity error model. The numerical ocean surface Doppler spectrum model is also introduced and validated with the empirical geophysical model function in C-band (CDOP). The suitable ocean wave elevation spectrum and directional distribution function are selected. What is more, this paper establishes the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method to retrieve the ocean surface current and wind simultaneously. The retrieval accuracy for different positions in cross track, different wind speeds, and different current speeds are analyzed. At last, the global ocean current field is observed by DopScat and the ocean current is retrieved. In our simulation, the orbit parameters and observation geometry of DopScat are the same as that of HY-2A scatterometer. The retrieval results show that global current speed standard deviation can be smaller than 0.18 m/s for five days and $0.5 {^{\circ }} \times 0.5 {^{\circ }}$ grid average.

Linking 1D coastal ocean modelling to environmental management: an ensemble approach

The use of a one-dimensional interdisciplinary numerical model of the coastal ocean as a tool contributing to the formulation of ecosystem-based management (EBM) is explored. The focus is on the definition of an experimental design based on ensemble simulations, integrating variability linked to scenarios (characterised by changes in the system forcing) and to the concurrent variation of selected, and poorly constrained, model parameters. The modelling system used was previously specifically designed for the use in “data-rich” areas, so that horizontal dynamics can be resolved by a diagnostic approach and external inputs can be parameterised by nudging schemes properly calibrated. Ensembles determined by changes in the simulated environmental (physical and biogeochemical) dynamics, under joint forcing and parameterisation variations, highlight the uncertainties associated to the application of specific scenarios that are relevant to EBM, providing an assessment of the reliability of the predicted changes. The work has been carried out by implementing the coupled modelling system BFM-POM1D in an area of Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea), considered homogeneous from the point of view of hydrological properties, and forcing it by changing climatic (warming) and anthropogenic (reduction of the land-based nutrient input) pressure. Model parameters affected by considerable uncertainties (due to the lack of relevant observations) were varied jointly with the scenarios of change. The resulting large set of ensemble simulations provided a general estimation of the model uncertainties related to the joint variation of pressures and model parameters. The information of the model result variability aimed at conveying efficiently and comprehensibly the information on the uncertainties/reliability of the model results to non-technical EBM planners and stakeholders, in order to have the model-based information effectively contributing to EBM.

Observed and modeled pathways of the Iceland Scotland Overflow Water in the eastern North Atlantic

The spreading of Iceland Scotland Overflow Water (ISOW) in the eastern North Atlantic has largely been studied in an Eulerian frame using numerical models or with observations limited to a few locations. No study to date has provided a comprehensive description of the ISOW spreading pathways from both Eulerian and Lagrangian perspectives. In this paper, we use a combination of previously unreported current meter data, hydrographic data, RAFOS float data, and a high resolution (1/12°) numerical ocean model to study the spreading pathways of ISOW from both of these perspectives. We identify three ISOW transport cores in the central Iceland Basin (∼59°N), with the major core along the eastern boundary of the Reykjanes Ridge (RR) and the other two in the basin interior. Based on trajectories of observed and/or numerical floats seeded along 59°N, we also describe the ISOW spreading pathways and quantify their relative importance. Within 10 years, 7–11% of ISOW from 59°N escapes into the Irminger Sea via gaps in the RR north of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ); the water that moves through these gaps principally originates from the shallower ISOW layer along the RR eastern boundary. 10–13% travels further southward until the CGFZ, where it crosses westward into the western subpolar gyre. 18–21% of ISOW spreads southward along the eastern flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge into the Western European Basin (WEB). Most of the remaining water stays in the Iceland Basin over the 10-year period. A model-based investigation provides a first look at the temporal variability of these ISOW pathways. We find that the fraction of southward water exported into the WEB is anti-correlated with the export through the CGFZ, a result assumed to reflect these pathways’ interactions with the North Atlantic Current in magnitude and/or position shift.

Implementation of a 3D ocean model to understand upland lake wind-driven circulation

A community numerical ocean model is used to extend the understanding of wind-driven circulation in small upland lakes. A 3D model of a case study lake (Llyn Conwy, Wales, UK) is calibrated against measured velocity profiles via adjustment of the bottom roughness coefficient. Validation against a separate set of measured velocity profiles confirms the ability of the model to resolve key features of the flow field. Sensitivity analysis shows that the velocity field responds rapidly to changes in the wind forcing. Analysis of the gross circulation using Empirical Orthogonal Functions reveals a persistent two-gyre circulation pattern in the upper half layer of the water column driven by the interaction of wind and bathymetry. At the bottom, the flow is characterised by locally strong currents and analysis of vertical circulation over short time scales shows strong currents in the deepest parts of the lake basin and the responsiveness of the water column to changes in wind speed and direction. Even in small lakes, the assumption of uniform wind stress across the water surface is not always justified and topographic sheltering or other catchment roughness effects give rise to heterogeneity in the wind field. An idealized experiment for the case study lake shows that differences in circulation emerge if the wind stress is allowed to vary across the lake. Energetic wind forcing in upland areas can drive an energetic lake circulation that has important implications for mixing and sediment dynamics. 3D numerical modelling of wind-driven circulation should be more widely used to provide insights into physical limnology to support a wide range of ecological, biogeochemical and palaeoenvironmental studies.

Tidal dynamics and their influence on the climate system from the Cretaceous to present day

Global numerical ocean models used for paleo-climate reconstructions commonly only consider the ocean's general circulation but neglect tidal dynamics. However, tidal dynamics affect the ocean's mean general circulation, in particular by vertical mixing and tidal residual mean currents. Through feedback loops the whole climate system is affected.Plate tectonics modify geometric resonance conditions in ocean basins and thereby tidal dynamics. We study the influence of ocean tides on the ocean general circulation and atmospheric parameters by forcing the coupled atmosphere-ocean model ECHAM5/MPIOM with the complete lunisolar tidal potential. Simulations have been performed for five tectonically important time-slices: the Early Albian (ca. 110millionyears ago, Ma), the Cenomanian-Turonian Boundary (ca. 93Ma, CTB), the Early Eocene (ca. 55Ma), the Early Pliocene (ca. 3.5Ma), and a pre-industrial period (ca. 1850CE). The model results suggest that the global mean tidal potential energy in the Early Eocene is almost three times larger than in the CTB. The large potential energy input in the Early Eocene leads to a tripling of current velocities in 10% of the deep ocean. Although the effect of tides on the general ocean circulation is less pronounced in the other time-slices, horizontal velocities are modified by more than 20% in 55% of the deep ocean.The tidally induced shifts of ocean currents and vertical mixing also have an effect on the three-dimensional temperature distribution in the ocean. The impact of tidal dynamics on atmospheric temperatures is particularly strong in the Southern Ocean of the Early Pliocene and the pre-industrial period. By a feedback loop with the atmosphere, tidal forcing locally reduces sea-ice concentration by up to 30% and local atmospheric 2m temperatures by up to 4°C.Although uncertainties in bathymetry reconstructions limit the significance of quantitative analysis, the qualitative conclusions suggest that the impacts of ocean tides on climate reach an order of magnitude, which require its consideration as additional uncertainty in the interpretation of paleo-climate studies. However, the impact of ocean tides has specific characteristics in each time-slice hampering its simple parametrization.

Contrasting shell growth strategies in two Mediterranean bivalves revealed by oxygen-isotope ratio geochemistry: The case of Pecten jacobaeus and Glycymeris pilosa

High-resolution stable-isotope ratio data (δ18O, δ13C) were used to study growth strategies of two bivalve species, Pecten jacobaeus (calcitic shell) and Glycymeris pilosa (aragonitic shell) from the North Adriatic Sea. The principal objectives of this study were to identify the period of the year when the growth line is formed in the shell of two target species, to identify the main growing season of these two species, to identify the environmental drivers of shell growth, and to evaluate the potential applicability of δ18O and δ13C values for the reconstruction of environmental variability. Samples were collected from the North Adriatic Sea by commercial bean trawl (P. jacobaeus, December 2013 and January 2014, N=4) and SCUBA diver (Glycymeris pilosa, March 2016, N=3). Samples for the oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotope composition of the calcium carbonate were collected by drilling the outer shell layer across several annual cycles. Temporal and spatial temperature and salinity values inside the investigated area were simulated using the 3D numerical ocean model - ROMS. The δ18O cycles corresponded to the number of seasonal growth marks observed on the external shell surface of both target species, thereby confirming the annual periodicity of these growth patterns. In February 2012, extreme cooling of the water column accompanied by dense water formation occurred in the Adriatic Sea - an event recorded by P. jacobaeus shells. This study indicates that P. jacobaeus and G. pilosa have contrasting shell growth strategies. Pecten jacobaeus grows during winter and slows shell growth during the warmest part of the year, and thereby may be an interesting archive for winter conditions. Due to its longevity and continuous growth during the warmest part of the year, G. pilosa is a promising archive for the reconstruction of summer seawater temperatures.

An ocean current inversion accuracy analysis based on a Doppler spectrum model

Microwave remote sensing is one of the most useful methods for observing the ocean parameters. The Doppler frequency or interferometric phase of the radar echoes can be used for an ocean surface current speed retrieval, which is widely used in spaceborne and airborne radars. While the effect of the ocean currents and waves is interactional. It is impossible to retrieve the ocean surface current speed from Doppler frequency shift directly. In order to study the relationship between the ocean surface current speed and the Doppler frequency shift, a numerical ocean surface Doppler spectrum model is established and validated with a reference. The input parameters of ocean Doppler spectrum include an ocean wave elevation model, a directional distribution function, and wind speed and direction. The suitable ocean wave elevation spectrum and the directional distribution function are selected by comparing the ocean Doppler spectrum in C band with an empirical geophysical model function (CDOP). What is more, the error sensitivities of ocean surface current speed to the wind speed and direction are analyzed. All these simulations are in Ku band. The simulation results show that the ocean surface current speed error is sensitive to the wind speed and direction errors. With VV polarization, the ocean surface current speed error is about 0.15 m/s when the wind speed error is 2 m/s, and the ocean surface current speed error is smaller than 0.3 m/s when the wind direction error is within 20° in the cross wind direction.

Reply to “Comment on Tailleux, R. Neutrality Versus Materiality: A Thermodynamic Theory of Neutral Surfaces. Fluids 2016, 1, 32.”

McDougall, Groeskamp and Griffies (MGG) strongly criticise all aspects of Tailleux (2016) that challenge the current conventional wisdom about the use of neutral density concepts for studying and parameterising lateral ocean stirring and mixing. However, their claim that most of Tailleux (2016)’s results or conclusions are incorrect is easily shown to originate: (1) from mistakingly confusing Tailleux’s Eulerian arguments for Lagrangian ones; (2) from their irrational belief that only one particular kind of quasi-material surface is somehow endorsed by Nature and hence relevant to the description of stirring and mixing—namely the locally-defined neutral tangent planes—stating at one point: “why should the ocean care about human constructed density variables”? MGG appear to overlook the simple fact that solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations—which synthesise our ideas about how Nature works—never require the introduction of any form of quasi-material or quasi-neutral density variable. This implies that the empirical isopycnal/isentropic stirring property is necessarily an emergent property of the Navier–Stokes equations, and hence that all forms of isopycnal surfaces—both neutral and not—are necessarily all human constructs. To establish the relevance of any particular construct to the actual ocean, an explicit model of stirring is needed to elucidate the nature of the dynamical/energetics constraints on lateral stirring. Even in the simplest model of stirring, neutral stirring represents only one possible mode out of a continuum of stirring modes responsible for lateral stirring in the ocean, without any evidence that it should dominate over the other ones. To help clarify the issues involved, it is proposed to regard the rigorous study of ocean stirring and mixing as relying on at least five distinct stages, from defining a model of stirring to constructing physically-based mixing parameterisations in numerical ocean models.

Application of multi-window maximum cross-correlation to the mediterranean sea circulation by using MODIS data

In a previous study an improved Maximum Cross-Correlation technique, called Multi-Window MaximumCross-Correlation (MW-MCC), was proposed, and applied to noise-free synthetic images in order to show its potentialand limits in oceanographic applications. In this work, instead, the application of MW-MCC to high resolution MODISimages, and its capability to provide useful and realistic results for ocean currents, is studied.When applied to real satellite images, the MW-MCC is subject to cloud cover and image quality problems. As a consequence the number of useful MODIS images is greatly reduced. However, for every MODIS image, multiple spectral bands are available, and it is possible to apply the MW-MCC algorithm to the same scene as many times as thenumber of these bands, increasing the possibility of finding valid current vectors.Moreover, the comparison among the results from different spectral bands allows to verify both the consistency ofthe computed current vectors and the validity of using a spectral band as a good tracer for the ocean circulation.Due to the lack of systematic current measurements in the area considered, it has been not possible to perform an extensive error analysis of the MW-MCC results, although a case study of a comparison between HF radar measurementsand MW-MCC data is shown. Moreover, some comparison between numerical ocean model simulations and MW-MCCresults are also shown. The coherence of the resulting circulation flow, the high number of current vectors found, theagreement among different spectral bands, and conformity with the currents measured by the HF radars or simulated byhydrodynamic models show the validity of the technique.

Application of HY-2 Satellite SST Data in 4D Variational Assimilation Ocean Forecast Model

The 4D variational (4DVAR) assimilation numerical ocean model research is proposed. This model for Taiwan Straits (TWS) is based on Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS). The background of the 4DVAR method is introduced and the development process of assimilation system is presented. In the present research, the model assimilated with Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data of HY-2 satellite (Qi, 2012; Xu, 2013) which is the first marine environmental monitoring satellite of China. In this paper, the model processes from Feb. 1 to Feb. 7, 2014 with one-day assimilation time window and root mean square error (RMSE) reduces averagely by 14.7%.

A robust interpolation procedure for producing tidal current ellipse inputs for regional and coastal ocean numerical models

Regional and/or coastal ocean models can use tidal current harmonic forcing, together with tidal harmonic forcing along open boundaries in order to successfully simulate tides and tidal currents. These inputs can be freely generated using online open-access data, but the data produced are not always at the resolution required for regional or coastal models. Subsequent interpolation procedures can produce tidal current forcing data errors for parts of the world’s coastal ocean where tidal ellipse inclinations and phases move across the invisible mathematical “boundaries” between 359° and 0° degrees (or 179° and 0°). In nature, such “boundaries” are in fact smooth transitions, but if these mathematical “boundaries” are not treated correctly during interpolation, they can produce inaccurate input data and hamper the accurate simulation of tidal currents in regional and coastal ocean models. These avoidable errors arise due to procedural shortcomings involving vector embodiment problems (i.e., how a vector is represented mathematically, for example as velocities or as coordinates). Automated solutions for producing correct tidal ellipse parameter input data are possible if a series of steps are followed correctly, including the use of Cartesian coordinates during interpolation. This note comprises the first published description of scenarios where tidal ellipse parameter interpolation errors can arise, and of a procedure to successfully avoid these errors when generating tidal inputs for regional and/or coastal ocean numerical models. We explain how a straightforward sequence of data production, format conversion, interpolation, and format reconversion steps may be used to check for the potential occurrence and avoidance of tidal ellipse interpolation and phase errors. This sequence is demonstrated via a case study of the M2 tidal constituent in the seas around Korea but is designed to be universally applicable. We also recommend employing tidal ellipse parameter calculation methods that avoid the use of Foreman’s (1978) “northern semi-major axis convention” since, as revealed in our analysis, this commonly used conversion can result in inclination interpolation errors even when Cartesian coordinate-based “vector embodiment” solutions are employed.

Application of multi-window maximum cross-correla-tion to the mediterranean sea circulation by using MODIS data

In a previous study an improved Maximum Cross-Correlation technique, called Multi-Window Maximum Cross-Correlation (MW-MCC), was proposed, and applied to noise-free synthetic images in order to show its potential and limits in oceanographic applications. In this work, instead, the application of MW-MCC to high resolution MODIS images, and its capability to provide useful and realistic results for ocean currents, is studied. When applied to real satellite images, the MW-MCC is subject to cloud cover and image quality problems. As a con-sequence the number of useful MODIS images is greatly reduced. However, for every MODIS image, multiple spec-tral bands are available, and it is possible to apply the MW-MCC algorithm to the same scene as many times as the number of these bands, increasing the possibility of finding valid current vectors. Moreover, the comparison among the results from different spectral bands allows to verify both the consistency of the computed current vectors and the validity of using a spectral band as a good tracer for the ocean circulation. Due to the lack of systematic current measurements in the area considered, it has been not possible to perform an ex-tensive error analysis of the MW-MCC results, although a case study of a comparison between HF radar measurements and MW-MCC data is shown. Moreover, some comparison between numerical ocean model simulations and MW-MCC results are also shown. The coherence of the resulting circulation flow, the high number of current vectors found, the agreement among different spectral bands, and conformity with the currents measured by the HF radars or simulated by hydrodynamic models show the validity of the technique.

Comparison of numerical advection schemes in two-dimensional turbulence simulation

Abstract The influence of numerical approximations on statistical characteristics of modelled two-dimensional turbulence sustained by a stochastic external forcing is studied. The ability of various finite-difference and semi-Lagrangian schemes to reproduce reliably the dual energy and enstrophy cascades for coarse spatial resolution is tested. It is also studied how the requirement of preserving invariants inherent to a two-dimensional ideal fluid is important relative to numerical schemes. The results of calculations with high spatial resolution were taken as a reference solution. The choice of studied schemes was motivated by their use in atmosphere and ocean numerical models, in particular, in the Institute of Numerical Mathematics climate model (INMCM) and semi-Lagrangian absolute vorticity (SLAV) model of medium-range weather forecast. The importance of conservation laws for integral vorticity and enstrophy is revealed in the numerical experiments with a small-scale external forcing.

Combining ocean numerical model and SAR imagery to investigate the occurrence of oil pollution, a case study for the Java Sea

IndoNACE is an abbreviation of Indonesian Seas Numerical Assessment of the Coastal Environment, a pilot study between Indonesia and Germany that combining analysis of oil spills from SAR images and numerical tracer studies from 3-D numerical model. Aim of this study is to understand the observed seasonal variations in marine oil pollution. Within this study, a visual inspection of all available SAR images is performed in order to generate maps of oil pollution occurrence in the Java Sea. Afterward, a set of numerical models is applied to trace back the origin of oil pollution. Our results showed that by analysing 706 ENVISAT ASAR images, the highest number of oil spills occurrence in the Java Sea was found during the transition monsoons, i.e. March to May and September to November. Assuming Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Seribu Islands as the end position of oil trajectory, we found that the origins of oil pollutions in that area were mostly from north and east.