Russian Dolls: Nesting a turbulent Large Eddy Stimulation within a nonhydrostatic Adaptive Grid Model within a 1/25 HYCOM model.

Abstract

The oceanography of the Bay of Bengal (BoB) is strongly influenced by the seasonal monsoon, which provides a seasonal surface forcing in the form of wind stress and a strong buoyancy of fresh water via riverine input and surface rain. This creates strong frontal structures in density (fronts) that propagate and are difficult to resolve with current ocean models. In addition, the interaction of the barotropic tide with the Andaman and Nicobar islands chain produces a strong baroclinic tidal beam that injects energy into the Bay, and possibly nonlinear internal waves as well. The climatological steady state of the BoB requires mixing near the surface and a net export of buoyancy out of the bay. We plan to study this with a hierarchical combination of models: at large scales we plan to use the Navy HYCOM model. Embedded within it we plan to use UNC s own SOMAR model to transition the physics from large, hydrostatic features to smaller, non-hydrostatic features, and finally at the smallest scales we plan to use UCSD s own LES model to capture small scale mixing.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Aug 12, 2016
Source ID
N000141512578

Entities

People

  • Alberto Scotti

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy
  • University of North Carolina

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Oceanography.