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Improve the utility of a coastal circulation model by assimilating hydrographic observations into the model momentum equation
Author(s) -
Zhai Li,
Sheng Jinyu
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2008gl035640
Subject(s) - hydrography , circulation (fluid dynamics) , bay , momentum (technical analysis) , environmental science , ocean current , climatology , general circulation model , oceanography , salinity , geology , meteorology , physics , climate change , mechanics , finance , economics
A numerical scheme is presented to assimilate hydrographic observations into the momentum equation of a limited‐area coastal ocean circulation model. This new scheme has an advantage of assimilating observed hydrography into the model momentum equations and leaving the model temperature and salinity equations to be fully prognostic and is well suited for tracer studies. The performance of this new scheme is assessed using a nested‐grid coastal circulation model developed for Lunenburg Bay of Nova Scotia, Canada. Model results demonstrate that this new scheme improves significantly the performance of the coastal circulation model in simulating the temperature and salinity distributions and circulation over coastal waters.