Wind‐driven spin‐up in eddy‐resolving ocean models formulated in isopycnic and isobaric coordinates

Wind-driven spin-up of the four-layer, quasi-isopycnic, eddy-resolving primitive equation model of Bleck and Boudra (1981) is compared with that obtained with a (numerically dissimilar) “pure” isopycnic coordinate model and an isobaric (i.e., quasi-Cartesian) coordinate model. In particular, the onset of hydrodynamic instabilities in the flow forced by a double-gyre wind stress pattern is studied. The spin-up processes associated with the isopycnic and quasi-isopycnic model are found to be similar, whereas the flow pattern produced by the quasi-Cartesian model deviates in the direction of Holland's (1978) and Holland and Lin's (1975a, b) two-layer solutions.

[1]  M. Shapiro,et al.  Simulation of Upper-Level Frontogenesis with a 20-Level Isentropic Coordinate Primitive Equation Model , 1975 .

[2]  William R. Holland,et al.  The Role of Mesoscale Eddies in the General Circulation of the Ocean—Numerical Experiments Using a Wind-Driven Quasi-Geostrophic Model , 1978 .

[3]  M. Redi.  Oceanic Isopycnal Mixing by Coordinate Rotation , 1982 .

[4]  William R. Holland,et al.  On the Generation of Mesoscale Eddies and their Contribution to the OceanicGeneral Circulation. I. A Preliminary Numerical Experiment , 1975 .

[5]  Jay P. Boris,et al.  Flux-corrected transport. I. SHASTA, a fluid transport algorithm that works , 1973 .

[6]  R. Bleck.  An isentropic coordinate model suitable for lee cyclogenesis simulation , 1984 .

[7]  Edward N. Lorenz,et al.  Available Potential Energy and the Maintenance of the General Circulation , 1955 .

[8]  R. Sadourny.  The Dynamics of Finite-Difference Models of the Shallow-Water Equations , 1975 .

[9]  A. Arakawa.  Computational design for long-term numerical integration of the equations of fluid motion: two-dimen , 1997 .

[10]  R. Bleck.  On the conversion between mean and eddy components of potential and kinetic energy in isentropic and isopycnic coordinates , 1985 .

[11]  S. Zalesak.  Fully multidimensional flux-corrected transport algorithms for fluids , 1979 .

[12]  Edward N. Lorenz,et al.  The nature and theory of the general circulation of the atmosphere , 1967 .

[13]  W. R. Holland,et al.  On the Generation of Mesoscale Eddies and their Contribution to the OceanicGeneral Circulation. II. A Parameter Study , 1975 .

[14]  Rainer Bleck,et al.  Initial Testing of a Numerical Ocean Circulation Model Using a Hybrid (Quasi-Isopycnic) Vertical Coordinate , 1981 .