FLEX

A data set which has been used throughout the last 40 years as a calibration for mixing parameterisations has been collected during the measurements of the Fladenground Experiment 1976 (FLEX'76) campaign. Starting from a well-mixed winter situation, a surface mixed layer is established, which is several times deepened and partly removed by storm events.

The measurements of meteorological forcing and potential temperature profiles were carried out in spring 1976 in the northern North Sea at a water depth of about 145 m and a geographical position at 58 deg 55’N and 0 deg 32’E. The simulation is run from April 6 to June 7, 1976. The Kondo (1975) bulk formulae have been used for pre-calculating the surface fluxes, which are given in the data files momentumflux.dat, and heatflux.dat. Other meteorological data files gives sea surface temperature (sst.dat) and short wave radiation (swr.dat). Tidal flow is forced by oscillating sea surface slopes (pressure.dat), temperature profiles for validation are provided directly from CTD (tprof_ctd.dat) or interpolated from CTD to semi-diurnal profiles (tprof.dat). Salinity from CTD (s_prof_ctd.dat) or from a 3D model (s_prof.dat) are used for nudging simulated salinity to “observed” data at a time scale of 2 days. Six-hourly values for light extinction are given by extinction.dat. Model simulations similar to those provided here have been published by Burchard & Baumert (1995). As there, also here a k-epsilon model is used as turbulence closure model, but here the Cheng et al. (2002) stability functions are used.