Northwestern Mediterranean Sea model (CNRS-POC)

The considered domain is the North Western Mediterranean sea, including the Catalan Sea, the Gulf of Lion and the Ligurian Sea. The dominant processes are the Northern Current, the winter deep water formation, the ROFI of the Rhône river, wind induced circulation (upwelling) related to Mistral and Tramontane events. The system consists of the ocean circulation model Symphonie (Marsaleix et al, 2006, Marsaleix et al, 2008a). Data assimilation of the weekly gridded (1/8°X1/8°) absolute dynamic topography fields provided by AVISO has been recently implemented (Marsaleix et al, 2008b, Cooper and Haines, 1996).

North Western Mediterranean Sea : 38.5°N to 44.5°N, 0°E to 12°E

Symphonie2008.9 (Free surface, primitive equations) (Marsaleix et al. 2008a)

Daily

1/32° x 1/32° non rotated

40 vertical generalized sigma levels

Gebco merged with local high resolution data

Bulk Formulae & 6 hourly meteorological fields

• Radiative Open Boundary Conditions (Marsaleix et al, 2006)

• Lateral forcing data from the global Mediterranean Ecoop model

• Daily run off

Partial slip lateral boundary friction condition

Non linear bottom friction

Laplacian diffusion

TKE vertical mixing model (Gaspar, 90)

No tide

Sequential continuous. Regional adaptation of the Cooper and Haines method (Marsaleix et al, 2008b)

Weekly gridded (1/8°X1/8°) absolute dynamic topography fields http://www.aviso.oceanobs.com/en/home/index.html