Abstract:

The dataset is based on archives from the University of Miami’s high-resolution (1/50 degrees, 1.8 km) configuration of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM-HYCOM 1/50) for two periods: 20-27 May and 2-10 July 2010. The GoM-HYCOM 1/50 used realistic river forcing parameterization developed by Schiller and Kourafalou (2010). The river discharge data used for the river forcing was obtained from the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Atmospheric forcing was obtained from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) at 0.125-degree spatial resolution and it is nested at the open boundaries using the Global HYCOM expt_90.8. The model assimilated satellite observations of sea surface temperature and sea surface height, and in situ observations of temperature and salinity. The GoM-HYCOM 1/50 gives details on the fronts and filaments associated with the Mississippi River plume dynamics, as well as GoM mesoscale processes relevant to this study (in particular the Loop Current frontal dynamics and their influence on plume transport). The dataset includes the vertical fields of temperature, salinity and currents down to 100m with 6 levels at 0, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100m from the GoM 1/50 NoRiver simulation, which is particularly tailored to be used in the OpenDrift trajectory modeling frame as a process-oriented simulation to study the effect of oil droplet size distribution and river fronts. This dataset supports the publication: Hole, L. R., Dagestad, K.-F., Röhrs, J., Wettre, C., Kourafalou, V. H., Androulidakis, I., Le Hénaff, M., Kang, H., and Garcia-Pineda, O. (2018). Revisiting the DeepWater Horizon spill: High resolution model simulations of effects of oil droplet size distribution and river fronts. Ocean Science Discussions, 1–20. doi:10.5194/os-2018-130

Suggested Citation:

Kourafalou, Villy; Kang, HeeSook. 2019. Vertical fields of temperature, salinity, and currents down to 100m from the GoM-HYCOM 1/50 NoRiver simulation for two periods, 2010-05-20 to 2010-05-27 and 2010-07-02 to 2010-07-10. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/n7-gh86-8p66

Publications:

Hole, L. R., Dagestad, K.-F., Röhrs, J., Wettre, C., Kourafalou, V. H., Androulidakis, Y., … Garcia-Pineda, O. (2019). The DeepWater Horizon Oil Slick: Simulations of River Front Effects and Oil Droplet Size Distribution. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 7(10), 329. doi:10.3390/jmse7100329

Purpose:

Data was prepared to be used in the OpenDrift trajectory modeling frame to study the effects of oil droplet size distribution and river fronts.

Data Parameters and Units:

MT (time, days since 1900-12-31 00:00:00), date (day as YYYYMMDD), depth (m), latitude (degrees North), longitude (degrees East), u (eastward_sea_water_velocity, m/s), v (northward_sea_water_velocity, m/s), sea water potential temperature (degrees C), sea water salinity (psu). Note: NoRiver simulation was designed to remove the salinity fronts by shutting off the river discharges, setting precipitation to zero and turning off the assimilation of salinity profiles.

Provenance and Historical References:

Schiller, R. V., & Kourafalou, V. H. (2010). Modeling river plume dynamics with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model. Ocean Modelling, 33(1-2), 101–117. doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2009.12.005

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