Modeling the Dardanelles strait outflow plume using a coupled model system

The ADvanced CIRCulation Model, ADCIRC, and the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model, HYCOM, are coupled in the Northern Aegean Sea. Over its 62 km, the Dardanelles Strait connects the Aegean Sea to the Marmara Sea. The Dardanelles outflow spreads to the Aegean Sea as a buoyant plume showing seasonal characteristics. The unstructured nature of the ADCIRC mesh provides the resolution necessary to model flow in the narrow strait whose minimum width is about 1 km. During one-way coupling efforts, ADCIRC is initialized using interannual solutions for temperature, salinity, velocity and water surface elevation fields taken from a larger domain HYCOM-AMB model, covering the Aegean, Marmara and Black Seas. Experiments using the one-way coupled model system are targeted at early February and late May of 2003 representing typical winter-spring and summer-fall conditions, respectively.