A three-dimensional numerical simulation of Hudson Bay summer ocean circulation: topographic gyres, separations, and coastal jets

The summer ocean circulation in Hudson Bay is studied numerically using the Blumberg-Mellor model with a 27.5 km x 27.5 km horizontal grid and a realistic bottom topography. In the control run 1) monthly climatological forcing fields of wind stress, oceanic inflow/outflow, and salt and heat fluxes are used. In addition, results are presented for a number of sensitivity experiments: 2) no topography (otherwise conditions are identical to the control run), 3) no wind forcing, 4) no oceanic inflow/outflow, 5) no heat and salt fluxes, 6) no temperature and salinity variations, and 7) without the nonlinear terms. A one-dimensional version of the model is also used to simulate the thermohaline vertical structure over a seasonal cycle. In particular, the observed deepening of the mixed layer in fall is reasonably well reproduced by the model.