A Sensitivity Study of Reduced-Gravity Channel Flows with Application to the Alborán Sea

Abstract

The reduced-gravity response of an hydraulically-forced flow in a rectangular channel is examined numerically. The model parameters were set by observed features of the circulation in the westernmost basin of the Mediterranean Sea?the Alborán Sea. Numerical experiments reveal that the solution depends critically on the inclusion of the momentum advection terms and on the form of the boundary condition on the domain's sidewalls. In particular, while free-slip conditions show a coastally trapped current on the model's southern boundary, no-slip conditions cause the formation of an anticyclonic gyre upon the flow's entry into the basin.