On sensitivity of the World Ocean model to the vertical resolution (Q2714073)

The aim of the article is to numerically study the problem of the large-scale climatic temperature, salinity, and currents fields in the World Ocean including the Arctic ocean with real geometry and bottom topography. The 3D linear model accounting for the hydrostatic, Boussinesq's and rigid lid approximation are employed for studying the ocean thermocline circulation. For the numerical realization of the model under consideration the authors use the implicit finite-difference schemes. The heat and salt transport equations with respect to horizontal coordinates are approximated by the nine-point difference scheme obtained by Richardson extrapolation. The second up-wind scheme is used in the vertical coordinate. The series of numerical experiments are carried out till the steady states for 12, 24, 36 vertical levels. The model predicts the realistic thermocline and halocline and reproduces the real deep water temperature and the average global temperature. The authors analyze the influence of the vertical resolution on the average temperature of the ocean. The model is not capable to reproduce the complex vertical salinity structure in the Southern hemisphere. Time series of winter global average temperature under the equilibrium state contain oscillations with amplitude of \(10^{-4}\)--\(10^{-5}\) degrees and periods of approximately from 3 to 10 years till 1600 years. Finally, the authors note that the global distribution of the temperature and salinity fields is in agreement with the observation.