Far East Journal of Ocean Research
Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages 29 - 50
(March 2009)
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SIMULATION OF CURRENT CIRCULATIONS AND SEA SURFACE ELEVATIONS IN THE GULF OF THAILAND DURING EAST ASIAN WINTER MONSOON
N. Aschariyaphotha (Thailand)
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Abstract:
In this research the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) is used to study the current circulation during a monsoon period in the Gulf of Thailand (GoT), covering the domain 6ºN to 14ºN and 99ºE to 105ºE. The model has an orthogonal curvilinear grid in the horizontal, with 10 sigma levels in the vertical conforming to a realistic bottom topography. It is initialized by the temperature and salinity data from Levitus94 data set, with sea surface elevation and velocity are zero. Force at the lateral boundary was prescribed from You’s results (IAP-model) and the radiation condition. The model domain has two open boundaries, i.e., eastern boundary and southern boundary. The first experiment was a spinup phase forced by monthly climatological wind from ECMWF, and zero velocity. The second experiment was a simulation phase forced by monthly climatological wind from ECMWF, and velocity from the spinup run. In this research the simulation concerned the case of typhoon Muifa, which occurred during November 23-27, 2004. The computation starts at 00UTC on October 23 and ends at 23UTC on November 27, 2004. The results show that during the winter monsoon, the GoT surface current circulation is generally clockwise with a strong current at the southwest Gulf, Songkla and Pattani coasts, influenced by inflow and surface winds from the South China Sea. The sea surface elevation is higher than the reference level with a maximum of 13.7 cm. During the storm event, a northeasterly wind blew strongly over the southeastern coast of Thailand, which caused sea level elevation to rise in the northwestern part of GoT reaching a maximum value of 25 cm. |
| Keywords and phrases: Gulf of Thailand, spinup phase, curvilinear grid, typhoon Muifa. |
| Communicated by Hyo Choi |
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