Towards a 3D Hydrodynamic numerical modeling system for long term simulations of the Río de la Plata dynamic

Abstract

In order to support water management decisions involving characteristics of the Río de la Plata current fields, a 3D hydrodynamic baroclinic numerical model has been implemented. Firstly, a 2D South Atlantic hydrodynamic barotropic model forced by NCEP reanalysis winds and the astronomical model FES2004, called ‘AStide’ is implemented and calibrated, taking the quality in the representation of the water level oscillations at the mouth of the Río de la Plata as the calibration condition. Secondly, a 3D hydrodynamic baroclinic model, with ten vertical sigma layers, forced for fluvial discharges, ECWMF reanalysis winds and boundary conditions from the AStide model, called ‘RPtide’ is implemented and calibrated. The computational tool used for the simulations is based on the MOHID water system and was developed with the aim of achieving a good quality in the dynamic representation while maintaining independence in the execution and efficient computation times. In order to improve the performance of the tool, several HPC techniques were applied, achieving speedups of up to 2x, while further improvements on the computational schemes used in the model allowed a 25% reduction in the running time. The proposed tool was used and validated, based on a hindcast strategy using the MOHID water system, in the evaluation of the potential energy of tidal currents in the area.