Non-hydrostatic simulations of tidally-induced mixing in the Halmahera Sea: A possible role in the transformation of the Indonesian Throughflow waters

Abstract

The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) waters are significantly transformed within the Indonesian Archipelago and consequently influence the large-scale ocean circulation such as Agulhas and Leeuwin Currents. Existing ocean general circulation models (OGCMs) are, however, incapable of reproducing the transformation of the ITF waters, since tidal forcing is neglected in such models. In the present study, we first conduct high-resolution non-hydrostatic three-dimensional numerical experiments focusing on the transformation of the ITF waters in the Halmahera Sea which is thought to be the most important bottleneck in simulating the ITF water-mass properties. It is shown that intensive vertical mixing induced by breaking of internal tides in the shallow regions in the Halmahera Sea dilutes the ITF waters, significantly reducing model biases found in the existing OGCMs. We next evaluate quantitatively the effect of tide-induced vertical mixing on the transformation of the ITF waters. It is shown that tide-induced vertical mixing dominates the transformation of the ITF waters, although some supplementary processes such as horizontal mixing associated with the sub-mesoscale eddies resulting from tidal interaction with land configurations cannot be ignored.