Towards high-fidelity simulations of coastal submesoscale  baroclinic instabilities with MPAS–O (vE3SM3.0.0)  – Part 2: Realistic experiments

Schlichting, Dylan R.; Smith, Katherine M.; Petersen, Mark R.; Hetland, Robert D.; Hinson, Kyle E.; Engwirda, Darren

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-9627-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9627-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9627-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 19

Model evaluation paper

|

12 Oct 2026

Model evaluation paper |

| 12 Oct 2026

Towards high-fidelity simulations of coastal submesoscale baroclinic instabilities with MPAS–O (vE3SM3.0.0) – Part 2: Realistic experiments

Dylan R. Schlichting, Katherine M. Smith, Mark R. Petersen, Robert D. Hetland, Kyle E. Hinson, and Darren Engwirda

Data sets

Towards high-fidelity simulations of coastal submesoscale baroclinic instabilities with MPAS-O (vE3SM3.0.0) Part II: Data and code Dylan Schlichting et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17903086

Short summary

River plumes can strongly influence coastal dynamics but are poorly resolved in global ocean models. Building on a companion study, we perform high-resolution simulations of the Mississippi–Atchafalaya (M–A) plume with the Model for Prediction Across Scales–Ocean (MPAS–O), a global model, and compare with a limited-domain Regional Ocean Modeling System configuration. MPAS–O qualitatively captures the M–A plume seasonality but fails to generate realistic eddies on the Texas–Louisiana shelf.