Benefit of nesting a regional model into a large-scale ocean model instead of climatology. Application to the West Florida Shelf

The impact of open boundary conditions on the dynamics and accuracy of a regional West Florida Shelf model is addressed. A ROMS-based model nested in monthly climatological temperature and salinity and in the North Atlantic HYCOM model is implemented. The model results of these nesting implementations are compared to altimetry, in situ temperature time series, and ADCP and high-frequency (HF) radar currents. A significant improvement of the model results is found using the boundary conditions of the HYCOM model over the climatology. The ageostrophic nature of the LC is studied and the benefit using the velocity and surface elevation boundary conditions is shown.