Arctic Shelf and Large Rivers: Seamless Nesting in Global HYCOM
Lead PI: Eric Chassignet, Florida State University
Start Year: 2015 | Duration: 3 Years
Partners: Naval Research Laboratory – Stennis Space Center
Fresh water inputs such as rivers and ice melt are poorly represented in global HYCOM since many of the processes associated with river plume dynamics and ice melt are unresolved. The main scientific and technical objective of the proposed work is to implement river mass flux and temperature flux boundary conditions, as well as two-way nesting to improve the representation of large river plumes and Arctic Ocean ice melt water runoff (land ice and glacier) in global HYCOM and to improve the predictability in coastal regions, the Arctic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. To assess the fidelity of the inner nests and boundary conditions, we will compare our simulations to all available observations. Emphasis will be placed on the fresh water plume dynamics and offshore circulation dynamics, as well as how the rivers impact the seasonal ice melt. We anticipate that the more accurate treatment of the river inflow and embedded two-way nested higher resolution local models will translate into improved river plume dynamics and better HYCOM forecasting skills on the Arctic shelves.
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