Open AccessA Comparison of Tidal Conversion Parameterizations for Tidal Models
Author(s) -
Mattias Green,
Jonas Nycander
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of physical oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.706
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1520-0485
pISSN - 0022-3670
DOI - 10.1175/jpo-d-12-023.1
Subject(s) - barotropic fluid , baroclinity , tidal power , tidal model , dissipation , elevation (ballistics) , energy transformation , abyssal zone , geology , meteorology , environmental science , climatology , physics , oceanography , mathematics , geometry , marine engineering , engineering , thermodynamics
The conversion of barotropic to baroclinic tidal energy in the global abyssal ocean is calculated using three different formulations. The calculations are done both âoffline,â that is, using externally given tidal currents to estimate the energy conversion, and âonline,â that is, by using the formulations to parameterize linear wave drag in a prognostic tidal model. All three schemes produce globally integrated offline dissipation rates beneath 500-m depth of ~0.6â0.8 TW for the M2 constituent, but the spatial structures vary significantly between the parameterizations. Detailed investigations of the energy transfer in local areas confirm the global results: there are large differences between the schemes, although the horizontally integrated conversion rates are similar. The online simulations are evaluated by comparing the sea surface elevation with data from the TOPEX/Poseidon database, and the error is then significantly lower when using the parameterization provided by Nycander than with the other two parameterizations examined