Research: Sissal Vágsheyg Erenbjerg, researcher at P/F Fiskaaling, published a paper in Regional Studies in Marine Science. The paper describes the FarCoast800 (Faroese Coast 800 m) model setup for the Faroe shelf and the validation towards observations.
Findings include that the circulation is in accordance with observations on the shelf and the upper ∼500m of the water column, away from the lateral boundaries. Also, high correlations were found between the model and observations for the on-shelf water, in particular for short-term variations of temperature, demonstrating the importance of high-resolution atmospheric forcing.
A main challenge for this study was the lateral boundary conditions at all four open boundaries in the varying and steep bathymetry of the FarCoast800 model setup. Investigations also included the origin of water reaching the different areas of the shelf. Notably, the results indicated intrusion of water originating from the East Icelandic Current into the deeper areas on the eastern part of the Faroe shelf.
A long-term motivation of the study was to investigate the capability of the model to drive an even higher resolution ROMS model setup for the central Faroe shelf, enabling the resolution of processes on a 100m scale or less. The study concludes that FarCoast800 can drive a high-resolution nested model area on the Faroe shelf.
For more information, please read the full paper.
Sissal V. Erenbjerg initiated this project in 2016 in collaboration with Institute of Marine Research in Bergen (IMR) and the University of Copenhagen (UCPH). The project was funded by the Faroese Research counsil (Grant number 0445), MOWI, Bakkafrost, Statoil and Fiskaaling.
