LIFECO: Advancement of Hydrodynamic Models: Resolution of frontal variability and key forcing processes

Results from two hindcast runs with a regional North Sea/Baltic Sea model HAMSOM (10km resolution)(HAMburg Shelf Ocean Model) for the period 1979 to 1993, forced by the ECMWF re-analysis and for the period 1958-1997, forced by the NCEP re-analysis are available for the historic analysis of frontal activity for the proposed project.

The simulations will be extended to cover the period from 1994-2002 using the ECMWF analysis. The HAMSOM grid resolution of 10 km is frontal resolving, but still too coarse to fully resolve the local frontal processes including eddy development and instabilities. To accomplish the goals of this work package, the HAMSOM model, will be modified to incorporate a nested component with a grid scale of 1 km, as deemed adequate to resolve frontal processes.