engleski

Dense water formation sensitivity studies in the Northern Adriatic (Mediterranean Sea)

The study focuses on reproduction of an extreme dense water formation (DWF) event which occurred over shallow northern Adriatic Sea in winter of 2012, and which was characterized by all-time record-breaking Mediterranean seawater density. One-way coupled ROMS and ALADIN/HR modelling system were used for reproduction of the event. Six model runs were performed: using 2 km ALADIN/HR fields and changing river inputs (run 1 – real rivers, run 2 – new climatology, run 3 – old climatology by Raicich, 1994) ; using real rivers and changing ALADIN/HR resolution (run 4 – 4 km resolution, run 5 – 8 km resolution) ; and including tides in the model with real rivers and 2 km ALADIN/HR fields (run 6). The sensitivity study includes an assessment of dense water volumes generated in different Adriatic sub-basins and of dense water transports over the selected cross-basin transects. No substantial changes in density levels and transports have been found between run 1 and run 2, with real rivers run producing slightly higher densities and density volumes, as a result of dry conditions which preconditioned the DWF event in 2012. However, quite a dramatic decrease of DWF volumes and transports has been modelled for run 3, especially at the newly found DWF site in the eastern part of the northern Adriatic, where old climatology overestimated river discharges for several times. Altering the atmospheric model resolution changed DWF volumes but not so dramatically, while including tides did not significantly influence the volumes. The importance of imposing a proper freshwater climatology in modelling processes in semi-enclosed basins has been emphasized, especially being relevant in karstic areas where a large number of submarine springs may alter the freshwater budget.

dense water; Adriatic Sea

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