Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 3347–3371, 2020 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3347-2020 © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Representation of the Denmark Strait overflow in a z-coordinate eddying configuration of the NEMO (v3.6) ocean model: resolution and parameter impacts Pedro Colombo1, Bernard Barnier1,4, Thierry Penduff1, Jérôme Chanut2, Julie Deshayes3, Jean-Marc Molines1, Julien Le Sommer1, Polina Verezemskaya4, Sergey Gulev4, and Anne-Marie Treguier5 1Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement, CNRS-UGA, Grenoble, 38050, France 2Mercator Ocean International, Ramonville Saint-Agne, France 3Sorbonne Universités (UPMC, Univ Paris 06)-CNRS-IRD-MNHN, LOCEAN Laboratory, Paris, France 4P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 5Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale, Brest, France Correspondence: Pedro Colombo (
[email protected]) Received: 23 September 2019 – Discussion started: 14 January 2020 Revised: 26 May 2020 – Accepted: 9 June 2020 – Published: 30 July 2020 Abstract. We investigate in this paper the sensitivity of the players contribute to the sinking of the overflow: the break- representation of the Denmark Strait overflow produced by a ing of the overflow into boluses of dense water which con- regional z-coordinate configuration of NEMO (version 3.6) tribute to spreading the overflow waters along the Greenland to the horizontal and vertical grid resolutions and to various shelf and within the Irminger Basin, and the resolved verti- numerical and physical parameters. Three different horizon- cal shear that results from the resolution of the bottom Ek- tal resolutions, 1=12, 1=36, and 1=60◦, are respectively used man boundary layer dynamics.