The DOME test case
DOME stands for Dynamics of Overflow Mixing and Entrainment. It is a benchmark setup designed to assess the qualities and drawbacks of ocean models in terms of deep water formation by gravity currents. The DOME test-case was the subject of many studies to understand the influence of vertical coordinates, resolution and physical parameters, geometry or parameterisations. More informations can be found on the website dedicated to the DOME experiment. The technical report with description of the benchmark is not anymore accessible in original the website but can be obtained here: (pdf).
The computational domain can be seen on the following figure, that shows the computational mesh used for the SLIM simulations. Dense water is initially set into the half lower part of the embayment of depth 600 m (red area in the picture). Under the action of gravity, a plume develops along the slope.
The evolution of this plume can be seen in the following movie. Isocontours of temperature are shown, while the colors at the bottom represent the free surface elevation.
A large plume develops along the slope and splits into several smaller subplumes, well defined in the beginning of the simulation. Surface depressions and mean velocity (next movie) show counter-rotating eddies whose genesis is clearly related to these subplumes. As the simulation evolves, the subplumes interact with each other to finally merge. Eddies propagate along the isobath with the shallow side on the right, corresponding to topographic Rossby waves.