EDDY-RESOLVING MODELING WITH DYNAMICALLY ACTIVE TRACERS

A baroclinic eddy-resolving model for frontal circulation in coastal water is presented. In this model, the transport equation of density is calculated in a Lagrangian framework using dynamically active tracers. This technique has the advantage of no numerical diffusivity. First results of the frontal circulation model show the growth of a small disturbance due to baroclinic instability, backward breaking and the formation of an anticyclonic and cyclonic vortex pair, frontogenesis by convective overturning, second order frontogenesis by horizontal deformation fields, and eddy detachment due to the advection of relative vorticity. © 1990.