A step towards high resolution modeling of the central Faroe shelf circulation by FarCoast800

Abstract

This paper describes the FarCoast800 model setup for the Faroe shelf and the validation towards observations. We found that the circulation was in accordance with observations on the shelf and the upper 500m of the water column, away from the lateral boundaries. Furthermore, we found high correlations between the model and observations for the on-shelf water, in particular for short-term variations of temperature, demonstrating the importance of high resolution atmospheric forcing. A main challenge for this study was the lateral boundary conditions at all four open boundaries in the varying and steep bathymetry of the FarCoast800 model setup. We also investigated the origin of water reaching the different areas of the shelf. Notably our results indicated intrusion of water originating from the East Icelandic Current into the deeper areas on the eastern part of the Faroe shelf.

Our long term motivation of the study was to investigate the capability of the model to drive an even higher resolution ROMS model setup for the central Faroe shelf, enabling the resolution of processes on a 100m scale or less. The study concludes that FarCoast800 can drive a high-resolution nested model area on the Faroe shelf.

Here we present a Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS) model setup for the Faroe shelf with a horizontal resolution of 800m x 800m and 35 vertical layers. The model setup is forced by a high resolution atmospheric model, and forced by a 4km x 4km horizontal resolution version of the ROMS model on the lateral boundaries. We name our model setup FarCoast800. The model setup was run for the entire sample year 2013.