Effects of Vertical Mixing Closures on North Atlantic Overflow Simulations

We are exploring the effect of using various vertical mixing closures on resolving the physical process known as overflow. This is when cold dense water overflows from a basin in the ocean. This process is responsible for the majority of the Ocean's dense water transport, and also creates many of the dense water currents that are part of what is known as the Ocean Conveyor Belt. One of the main places this happens is in the North Atlantic, in the Denmark strait and the Faroe Bank Sea Channel. To simulate this process, two ocean models are used, the Parallel Ocean Program (POP) and the hybrid-coordinate Parallel Ocean Program (HyPOP). Using these models, differences are observed in three main vertical mixing schemes Constant, Richardson Number, and KPP. Though, not included in this thesis the research also explores three different vertical griding schemes, Z-Grid, Sigma Coordinate, and Isopycnal grids. The goal is to attempt to determine which combination gives the most acceptable results for resolving the overflow process. This is motivated by the large role this process plays in the ocean, as well as the difficulty in modeling this process. If an ocean model cannot accurately simulate overflow, then a large portion of the ocean model will be incorrect and one cannot hope to get reasonable results for long simulations out of it.