(2)A numerical simulation case study of the coastal currents and upwelling in the western Persian Gulf
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Hesameddin Mehrfara, Masoud Torabi Azadb,∗ , Kamran Lari b
, Abbas-Ali Ali-Akbari Bidokhti c
a Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
b Department of Marine Science and Technology, Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
c Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Received 20 September 2019; received in revised form 31 December 2019; accepted 31 December 2019
Available online 7 February 2020
Abstract
The present study employed COHERENS model as a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model to address the coastal currents in the western
Persian Gulf with a horizontal resolution of 2-minutes of latitude and longitude. The obtained results suggested that Iranian northwestward
coastal currents developed from January to April and experienced their maximum intensity from June to August when the rate of the
surface inflow current increases through the Strait of Hormuz and the stability of the seasonal thermocline becomes gradually stronger. The
simulation results reflected that expansions of the thermocline area began by the arrival of the warm season. Under such circumstances,
some stronger coastal currents were generated in summer. The strong coastal surface current in the vicinity of the western part of Iranian
coasts flew southeastward, while the reverse current flew with a northwestern direction in the seabed. The obtained results suggested that
a consequence of the influence of salinity flux, especially on the Iranian coasts, the speed of currents increases. The findings of this study
showed that more kinetic energy was accumulated along Iranian coasts. Moreover, the current vectors on Iranian coasts were greater than
those on Arabian coasts, which in turn resulted in the creation of the upwelling currents along western Iranian coasts.
© 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Keywords: Coastal Currents; COHERENS Model; Numerical Simulation; Persian Gulf (PG); Upwelling.