2004 LOM Workshop

Wednesday 3:20 - 3:40 p.m.

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South Florida Regional HYCOM nested simulations

Villy Kourafalou, Roland Balotro, Alan Wallcraft and Tammy Townsend
University of Miami/RSMAS
villy@rsmas.miami.edu

ABSTRACT

The South Florida regional HYCOM model is an implementation of HYCOM around South Florida, from approximately 22.50N to 270N and from 790W to 840W, thus covering Florida Bay, the Florida Keys, the Florida Straits and parts of the southwest and southeast Florida shelf areas including the Dry Tortugas. The regional model has been nested (a) within the North and Equatorial Atlantic Ocean basin (NA) HYCOM and (b) within the Intra-American Seas (IAS) HYCOM. The minimum depth has been configured to 5m, with a 1m coastline. The simulations have been forced with perpetual year atmospheric forcing (monthly mean winds with 6-hour anomalies). River inputs have been specified for two west Florida shelf rivers: Shark River and Caloosahatchee River; the influence of low-salinity waters of Mississippi River origin are evident during summer. The shallow depths along the Florida Keys Reef Tract allow the propagation of eddies along the Florida Current front; enhanced eddy activity (as compared to the larger scale models) is also observed south of the Florida Current front. The regional model simulations reveal a wind-driven southeastward flow that is present in the Florida Straits along the Florida Keys shelf; this flow agrees well with drifter trajectories and with wind-driven events recorded in moored current meters. Movies of tracer dispersion help elucidate the pathways of passive tracers along and across the Florida Straits.

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LOM Users' Workshop, February 9-11, 2004