Simulation Of Deep-Water Mass Formation In The Mediterranean Sea Using A High-Resolution Air-Ocean Coupled Modeling System

Deep-water mass formation in the Mediterranean Sea is believed to be caused by strong cold winds associated with intense winter storms forcing small-scale convective processes within the Mediterranean. It is difficult to properly simulate the deep-water mass formation without accurate, high-resolution atmospheric surface forcing, which is critical for the initiation of the ocean convection. In this paper, the atmospheric component of the U.S. Navy's Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) is used to construct high-resolution atmospheric reanalyses over the Mediterranean Sea for the period of October 1998 - September 2000. The atmospheric fields are generated through a 12 h incremental update cycle. Atmospheric fields are output at each analysis time and at every 1 h during the model forecasts. The reanalyzed fields include the 10-m wind; surface wind stress, sensible, latent, solar and long wave heat fluxes; accumulated precipitation; and sea surface temperature. The temporal resolution of these fields is one hour and the horizontal resolution is 27 km. These fields are used to force the oceanic component of COAMPS, the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM), in the Mediterranean Sea. We will present the simulation results of deep ocean convection and deep-water mass formation for the Western Mediterranean Deep Water (WMDW), the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water (EMDW), the Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW), and the Levantine Deep Water (LDW). We will also discuss the impact of the high resolution forcing on the deep ocean convection by comparing the results with those from existing coarser resolution climatological surface fluxes.