Confpaper

The BALTEX Box Revisited: The Energy Budget of the Baltic Sea in the Coupled Regional Climate Model REMO-BSIOM

Abstract

Due to its semi-enclosed nature, the Baltic Sea's water and ice body is almost in thermo-dynamic balance with the atmosphere above. Thus changes in the heat content are mainly associated with fluxes at the atmosphere-ocean interface. However, this budget is not fully closed due to the connection to the North Sea and the river discharge. In this study the heat budget of the water and ice body of the Baltic Sea is investigated using a coupled regional climate model. The main heat fluxes into the Baltic Sea represented in the model system are quantified, namely the surface heat fluxes, the heat exchange with the North Sea, and the heat fluxes associated with river discharge, precipitation and evaporation. The surface fluxes at the ocean/ice-atmosphere interface are compared to observations and an atmosphere-only simulation.
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