IB02-3 ORAL

MODELS OF THE BROAD COASTAL ZONE OF THE NORTH-WEST ATLANTIC

J.A.JOHNSON (School of Mathematics, University of East Anglia, , Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom., j.johnson@uea.ac.uk); I. G. Stevens (School of Mathematics, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom, i.stevens@uea.ac.uk)

A fine resolution primitive equation model has been constructed of the region along the north-west African coast from the Canary Islands in the South to Iberia in the North. The model has been forced by ECMWF winds, both monthly mean and a higher frequency three-day running mean and by surface relaxation to climatological temperature and salinity. There are open boundaries to the south, west and north and at the Strait of Gibraltar where the open boundary conditions use data from the OCCAM whole ocean model.

The model has been run with horizontal resolutions of from one sixth to one twenty-fourth of a degree and with 36 vertical levels and has concentrated on different parts of this coastal region. The Gulf of Cadiz model includes the generation of meddies which are advected around Cape St Vincent to move either northward along the coast or offshore. Comparisons are made with in-situ observations. The African coastal model shows the Cape Ghir filament for most of the year, and is used to track heavy particles as they descend to the bottom. Comparisons are made with satellite remote sensing. The flow through the Canary Archipelago generates many eddies which interact with the coastal filaments. Coastal filaments appear wherever there is coastal upwelling with narrow intermittent filaments in the north and broader persistent filaments in the south of the region.