Investigating the circulation patterns of the northern Adriatic Sea with a very high resolution model.

Abstract:

The NEMO model was implemented on the northern Adriatic sea with an high resolution (horizontal resolution of 800 m and vertical resolution of 2 m). The model is off-line nested with a general circulation model of Mediterranean sea providing open boundary data.

Hindcast simulations with high frequency atmospheric forcing and daily river runoff, were performed and analyzed in order to study the interannual variability of the circulation pattern and of the shelf dense water (Northern Adriatic dense Water, NADW) production in relation to the freshwater input and heat and wind forcing. Whenever possible, the results were validated against available observations. The simulations highlighted the large interannual variability of the circulation patterns. This is a contribution of the EU-FP7 Project “PERSEUS” (Policy oriented environmental research in the Southern European Seas)