Baltic Sea

model was capable of replicating all major events found in the measurements. The velocities
were slightly lower, but all in all the model results are very good.
The ow of the eastward current seems to be pulse-like, with each pulse-like event lasting about
2 − 4 days. This is more obvious in the daily currents in Fig. 4.12. Comparing the height of
the eastward ow's upper boundary layer between the northern and southern ank i.e. SFN
and SFS, a slope similar to the slope of the salinity/ density gradient in the hydrographic crosssection
was observed (compare Fig. 4.8). This south-north slope becomes more apparent in
Fig. 4.13 indicating that time averaged mean velocities tend to go westward in the top layer
and turn eastward in the bottom layer from 52 m to the bottom at SFS and 65 m at SFN.
Fig. 4.13 shows that the eastward bottom ow at the northern ank of the channel (left panel)
has only a thickness of about 6 m in the vertical, but exhibits a larger range in velocities by
higher standard deviations. On the southern ank of the channel the eastward ow reached
higher up in the water column with a thickness of 19 m but exhibited slightly slower velocities.
After the strong storm event on 4 November 2006 longer periods of westward currents were
especially at SFN observed (Fig. 4.12 upper panel). They seemed to be initiated from the
Figure 4.10: Current velocity east in cm/s for SFN (upper left), current velocity east for SFS (upper
right), current velocity north for SFN (lower left) and current velocity north for SFS (lower right panel).
60