Spurious numerical mixing under strong tidal forcing: a case study in the south-east Asian seas using the Symphonie model (v3.1.2)

Abstract

The role of mixing between layers of different densities is key to how the ocean works and interacts with other components of the Earth's system. Correctly accounting for its effect in numerical simulations is therefore of utmost importance. However, numerical models are still plagued with spurious sources of mixing, originating mostly from the vertical advection schemes in the case of fixed-coordinate models. As the number of phenomena explicitly resolved by models increases, so does the amplitude of resolved vertical motions and the amount of spurious numerical mixing, and regional models are no exception to this. This paper provides a clear illustration of this phenomenon in the context of simulating the south-east Asian (SEA) seas along with a simple way to reduce its impact. This region is known for its particularly strong internal tides and the fundamental role they play in the dynamic of the region. Using the Symphonie ocean model, simulations including and excluding tides and using a pseudo-third-order upwind advection scheme on the vertical are compared to several reference datasets, and the impact on water masses is assessed. The high diffusivity of this advection scheme is demonstrated along with the importance of accounting for tidal mixing for a correct representation of water masses. Simultaneously, we present an improvement in this advection scheme to make it more suitable for use in the vertical. Simulations with the new formulation are added for comparison. We conclude that the use of a higher-order numerical diffusion operator greatly improves the overall performance of the model.