SALINITY MODELS OF THE SOUTHERN NORTH-SEA

With the recent acquisition of a detailed set of salinity measurements in the southern North Sea as a result of the U.K. North Sea Project (1988-1989), it is now feasible to test a fine resolution model of the area thus superseding the bulk box models used hitherto. A series of fine resolution, two-dimensional, advection-diffusion salinity models of the U.K. shelf and North Sea have been constructed. By comparison with the North Sea Project data these have inferred the most important influences on the salinity of the North Sea, in particular the importance of advection, of salinities on the open boundaries and of the evaporation/precipitation balance in the central North Sea. One of the models was also used in an attempt to explain the salinity anomaly seen during the North Sea Project. A mechanism for this is suggested.