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Mirko Orlić

Abstract

The influence of planetary atmospheric waves on the Adriatic sea level is investigated for the year 1976 on the basis of 500 mb surface height and sea level data. Analysis is performed in time and frequency domains. It is found that—in the first approximation—the lower layers of the atmosphere are characterized by barotropic structure in the scope of the mentioned processes, while the equilibrium of sea-elevation gradient with air-pressure gradient is realized in the sea. Accordingly, sea level changes are opposite in phase to the oscillations of a selected isobaric surface; the ratio of their amplitudes is the same as the one between (sea surface) air density and density of the sea. Departures from this simple relationship result from the baroclinic atmospheric disturbances that occasionally influence the sea in the frequency band corresponding to planetary atmospheric waves.

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Mirko Orlić
and
Zoran Pasarić

Abstract

Three variants of the semiempirical method for sea level projection are considered. They differ in assuming that the response of sea level to temperature forcing is equilibrium, inertial, or a combination of the two. All variants produce a successful regression of the temperature and sea level data, albeit with controlling parameters that differ among the cases. The related response times vary considerably, with a realistic value (~50 yr) obtained only if both the equilibrium and the inertial dynamics are taken into account. A comparison of sea levels projected by using the three variants shows that the time series are similar through the middle of the twenty-first century but they radically diverge by the end of the twenty-third century. This result is interpreted with the aid of the underlying transfer functions. It suggests that one should be cautious when using the semiempirical method to project sea level beyond the twenty-first century.

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Vanda Grubišić
and
Mirko Orlić

This article delivers a short history of the early quantitative documentation of a rotor-type circulation in the bora-type flow on the northern Adriatic by Andrija Mohorovičić, an all-around geophysicist and the father of Croatian geophysical research who is widely known as the discoverer of discontinuity between the Earth's crust and mantle. This historical work presents an overview of Mohorovičić's research technique and rotor-related contributions, together with a short account of other observations of rotors contemporary to Mohorovičić as well as those from the 1920s and 1930s, considered to be seminal work on the subject on atmospheric rotors to date. In the year that marks the 150th anniversary of Mohorovičićs birth, his early meteorological observations remain germane for atmospheric rotor research, which is currently experiencing a renaissance with the Terrain-Induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX), a recently completed international field campaign and an ongoing research effort focused on atmospheric terrain-induced rotors.

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Mirko Orlić
and
Martin Lazar

Abstract

A simple diagnostic model, reproducing circulation in lakes and marginal seas in which low-density waters are found close to the coasts while high-density waters dominate the offshore areas, is developed. An explicit solution is obtained for the central transverse section of an elongated basin, assuming that the Boussinesq and hydrostatic approximations are valid and that the alongshore variability vanishes. The model reveals cyclonic circulation that may either extend throughout the vertical (type C) or may top anticyclonic circulation developed in the bottom layer (type C/A). With the amplitude of the imposed density anomaly being fixed, the flow type is controlled by the frictional processes and by the basin dimensions. In a typical basin, type C/A flow is supported by weak bottom and vertical friction and by moderate lateral friction, unlike type C flow, which is supported by moderate bottom and vertical friction and by weak lateral friction. Strong frictional influence, especially in the basin interior, suppresses the flow everywhere. The flow is also suppressed in a basin that is narrow O(1 km) and shallow O(10 m), even without the frictional control being too strong. A basin that is narrow and deep favors type C/A flow, whereas a basin that is wide and shallow tends to support type C flow. The theoretical findings are related to observations, particularly those originating from the Adriatic Sea where type C flow prevails but may occasionally be replaced by type C/A flow, as well as to previous modeling results.

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Mirko Orlić
and
Zoran Pasarić

Abstract

An existing reduced-gravity model that reproduces the response of the coastal sea to alongshore wind forcing at subinertial frequencies is extended by allowing for cross-shore wind forcing and by considering superinertial frequencies. The obtained explicit solution shows that the wind-driven currents are predominantly controlled by friction and the Coriolis force at subinertial frequencies and by friction and local acceleration at superinertial frequencies. The effect of the coast is manifested by coastal-trapped variability at subinertial frequencies and baroclinic inertia–gravity waves propagating away from the coast at superinertial frequencies. The pycnocline oscillates at the coast not only at subinertial but also at superinertial frequencies, with the alongshore wind contributing more to the former and the cross-shore wind influencing more the latter. The oscillations are most pronounced when the periodic wind forcing is resonantly coupled to the local inertial oscillations (but only if the wind is not rotating counter to the inertial currents) and at near-zero frequencies (but not when the wind is purely cross-shore). These theoretical findings are related to recent observations of diurnal temperature oscillations in the near-shore water column.

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