Oey, L-Y., Y-H. Zhang, and P. Chen, 1992: Simulation of the Norwegian coastal current in the vicinity of the Halten Bank: comparison with observations and process study of bank-induced meanders. Journal of Marine Systems, 3, 391-416.
Abstract: Results from a high-resolution, three-dimensional,
real-time simulation of the Norwegian Coastal Current are compared at six
current meter moorings deployed during March 1988 in the vicinity of the
Halten Bank. The simulation was initialized from a set of fairly arbitrary
velocity and density fields. The objectives are to examine (i) how accurately
the results reproduce the observed means and variabilities, and (ii) how
the dominant flow dynamics may be explained in term of the circulation
produced by unstable baroclinic meanders over topography.
The simulation reproduces the means fairly well; the rms errors are less
than 34% in five of the six moorings for the east/west velocity component,
and are less than 32% in three moorings for the north/south component.
The agreements in current variabilities are good only at three moorings,
for which an averaged rms error of about 22% was obtained. At the other
three moorings, the largest errors for the variabilities occur in the subsurface,
where energetics are underestimated by as much as 60% or more in the simulation.
The discrepancies are most likely due to insufficient vertical resolution,
which results in a poor representation of the baroclinic structure, and
also due to the smoothed topography used in the simulation. On the other
hand, a meander upstream of the Halten Bank on March 26, 1988, is reproduced
well by the model. The simulation sugests that the meander is a result
of amplification of waves and eddies shed from a smaller bank upstream
of the Halten Bank through dynamic instability. A process-oriented simulation
has been conducted to support this hypothesis.