Articles | Volume 19, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9627-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9627-2026
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

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Towards high-fidelity simulations of coastal submesoscale baroclinic instabilities with MPAS-O (vE3SM3.0.0) Part I: Idealized experiments
Kyle E. Hinson, Dylan R. Schlichting, Robert D. Hetland, Darren Engwirda, Katherine M. Smith, Mark R. Petersen, and Kaila Uyeda
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1566,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1566, 2026
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Cited articles

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Bianchi, T. S., DiMarco, S. F., Cowan Jr, J., Hetland, R. D., Chapman, P., Day, J., and Allison, M.: The science of hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: A review, Sci. Total Environ., 408, 1471–1484, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.11.047, 2010. a
Bracco, A., Liu, G., and Sun, D.: Mesoscale-submesoscale interactions in the Gulf of Mexico: From oil dispersion to climate, Chaos Solit. Fract., 119, 63–72, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2018.12.012, 2019. a
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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.
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