Laboratory of numerical experiments in ocean dynamics

Head of the laboratory, PhD,
D.A. Romanenkov
dmromanenkov@yandex.ru

The laboratory was founded in 1973.
The laboratory includes 2 DSc and 4 PhD researchers.

MAIN RESEARCH FOCUS

  • Modeling the dynamics of tides in the oceans and marginal seas. 
  • Study of tidal ice drift in the seas of the Arctic Ocean.
  • Investigation of the influence of diapicnic mixing induced by internal tidal waves on the climate of the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas.
  • Study of the spatial variability of the hydrodynamic properties of the bottom topography on the dynamics and energetics of tides.
  • Development of numerical methods for solving the equations of ocean dynamics in boundary-consisted coordinates, their application to the regional models’ design.
  • Development of a non-hydrostatic model and study of the corresponding boundary conditions in solving three-dimensional problems of ocean dynamics.

IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS

  • New laws of resistance are formulated for an oscillating turbulent boundary layer over the underlying surface of various roughness, taking into account the effects of rotation and phase shift between the bottom friction stress and the flow velocity outside the layer.
  • The concept of weak interaction of wind waves and low-frequency motions on the shelf and a method for parametrizing this interaction in tidal models for an improved description of bottom friction is proposed.
  • Technology has been developed for predicting tidal ice drift and tidal compressions and thinnings of ice fields in the seas of the Arctic Ocean.
Fig. 1. Temperatures of the seawater in the Barents Sea along the parallel of 70 ° N. (a, b), at a pycnocline depth of 50 m (c, d): (a) and (c) — an explicit way to take into account tides, (b) — without taking into account tides, (d) — difference in characteristics with and without accounting for tides.
  • For the first time, high-resolution modeling of internal tidal waves of the Barents and Kara Seas and the contribution estimates of internal tidal waves (ITW) are presented. It was shown that the vertical turbulent and diapycnal diffusion coefficients, which characterize the intensity of the corresponding mixing, are comparable in the order of magnitude. Additionally, the climatological fields of the sea characteristics are subject to significant changes due to the ITW-induced diapycnal diffusion.
  • A method for tidal effects accounting in regional climate models is proposed.
  • A method is developed for calculating catastrophic phenomena in the coastal zone of the sea during landslide processes based on a two-layer non-hydrostatic model.
  • A general approach to modeling non-hydrostatic dynamics in the straits of the World Ocean and on steep continental slopes has been developed based on an original three-dimensional model in curvilinear coordinates consistent with morphometry. The simulations of the tidal dynamics and hydrology in the Lombok Strait (Indonesian archipelago) proved that the slope dynamics modeling in the hydrostatic approximation is inadequate.
  • A model estimate of the role of tidal mixing and the associated structural hydrological front in the form of the observed negative surface water temperature anomaly at the boundary between the Barents and White seas has been obtained. The intensity and size of the anomaly, as well as the position of the tidal mixing front, change bi-weekly, which is associated with the syzygy-quadrature cycle of the semidiurnal tide.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

Researchers from the Laboratory of Ocean Dynamics Numerical Experiments collaborate with scientists from Helmholtz centre for polar and marine research the Alfred Wegener institute (AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany), produce joint publications and conference presentations.

Laboratory staff:

  • Androsov Alexey Anatolyevich
  • Volzinger Naum Evseevich
  • Kagan Boris Abramovich
  • Romanenkov Dmitry Anatolyevich
  • Sein Dmitry Vladimirovich
  • Seregina Inna Vladimirovna
  • Sofina Ekaterina Vladimirovna
  • Timofeev Andrey Alexandrovich