Air-Sea Fluxes and River Discharges in the Black Sea With a Focus on the Danube and Bosphorus
Abstract
Climatological variations in the Black Sea thermal and haline buoyancy fluxes are investigated. Analyses are performed to determine the relative contributions to net buoyancy flux from thermal and haline sources. In the Black Sea salinity is increased by Bosphorus and decreased by precipitation and the inflow from six major rivers. Monthly means of the latter are investigated in some detail. The effects of the two types of buoyancy flux are examined using a = 3.2 km resolution Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). River discharges are obtained from four climatologies: (1) River DiScharge (RivDlS), (2) Perry, (3) University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and (4) Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Statistical evaluations of climatological river discharges from these products result in similar annual mean values. However, there are differences in the seasonal cycle. In the case of Danube, which has the largest annual river discharge contribution of 6365 m3 s-1, RMS differences for river discharge values over the seasonal cycle are within = 2% among all products. The Black Sea HYCOM simulation uses climatological monthly mean atmospheric forcing (wind and thermal forcing) from European Centre for Medium -Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Re -Analyses. Buoyancy flux fields obtained from the HYCOM simulation demonstrate that thermal buoyancy flux dominates haline buoyancy flux in all months except March, when the basin -averaged absolute ratio of the former to the latter is 0.5 in the Black Sea. In contrast, large buoyancy ratio...
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA494651
Entities
People
- A. Birol Kara
- Alan J. Wallcraft
- E. V. Stanev
- Harley E. Hurlburt
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory