Ocean type boundary condition

Question

Hi,

When preparing the boundary condition file for AEM3D, I specified the 'Ocean' type open cell along one segment of the boundary as below:

! - -

! - Boundary condition file for Janauaca Lake, DP2 site

! - File contains 1 open boundary

! - -

1 open_cell   Ocean

65 91 :

68 90 :

69 90 :

72 89 :

Can someone help to clarify what happens to the temperature profile and flow field at these open cells when water level is forced to change with time? Any literature?

Many thanks in advance

Wencai Zhou

Earth Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara

Answer 1

Hi Wencai,

An open BC just works by enforcing the height of the ghost column to the given value at each timestep in the free surface solution.  The momentum solution is then solved as per normal and the simulated velocities used to advect scalars in/out of the domain in the Ultimate-Quickest routine.

When simulated velocities are into the domain the scalar coming in will have the values given by the BC files (either single values or from a profile TS files).

Chris