River input file in ROMS.

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jayashree
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Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:12 pm
Location: INCOIS

River input file in ROMS.

#1 Unread post by jayashree »

Hi,

I have configured a model for the Indian Ocean using ROMS.
I want to include river discharge in my model and I have downloaded the JRA-55 -do dataset for river runoff.
I have checked the format of the NetCDF file for the river in the ROMS repository which has river_temperature and river_salinity as parameters.

Can anyone suggest to me how to give temperature and salinity values of the river for each source at all vertical levels, and from where can I get the temperature and salinity values?

Regards,
Jayashree

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kate
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Location: CFOS/UAF, USA

Re: River input file in ROMS.

#2 Unread post by kate »

Yes, this is a problem. For salinity, we just use 0.0. For the temperature, some climate modelers use the air temperature. If you were already reading air temperature for the bulk fluxes, you could modify the code to just use it. For Gulf of Alaska waters, Seth Danielson gave me a year of daily temperatures from stream gauges. In the Arctic, Jonathon Whitefield showed that you need to provide more heat than you'd get from air temperatures, but it might be fine closer to the equator.

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stevenmiguelfigueroa
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Location: Chungnam National University

Re: River input file in ROMS.

#3 Unread post by stevenmiguelfigueroa »

In my experience around 40 degrees North, the river temperature is warmer than the ocean temperature in summer and colder than the ocean temperature in winter.

I guess finding the climatological annual air temperatures near the river mouths and applying them to the river water temperature would be a simple approach.
But it might not work for very hot areas, where the air temperature is much greater than the ocean temperature.
So, instead I guess using the climatological annual ocean temperature near the river mouth is better.

If you can search the literature for any data, that could help to guide what values to use.

As far as vertical structure of S and T... I expect they would be uniform typically in nature as rivers are generally shallow and turbulent. But, I'm not sure from a modeler's perspective what is the best approach.
There is an old post on the treatment of river point sources in regional domains which might be helpful for you.

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kate
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Re: River input file in ROMS.

#4 Unread post by kate »

I never have enough data to make use of the full power of the model to import depth-dependent information. To make smaller river files, I hacked ROMS to read in river tracers either as a function of time only or as a function of time and river, but not depth.

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