2 Topography, Hydrography, Circulation and Modelling of the Baltic Sea
61
reality is different. For example, the best available gridded Baltic Sea bathymetry
with a resolution of 1 nautical mile (Seifert et al. 2001) is not up-to-date for several
sub-basins and there is an urgent need to construct a higher-resolution bathymetry.
There are several attempts to increase the formal resolution of this dataset to 0.5
nautical miles by means of interpolation of the existing information (Zhurbas et al.
2008a, 2008b, Laanemets et al. 2009). Nevertheless, much of the dynamics of the
Baltic Sea is apparently significantly affected by the local topography. As a first approximation, this problem was solved for the Gulf of Finland by means of manually
re-digitizing information from navigational maps (Andrejev et al. 2010), which obviously is not the proper form of information technology in the 21st century but still
quite adequately reflects the pool of problems faced by the Baltic Sea oceanographers.
Even if there are still problems which are partly unsolved, 3D modelling efforts
of the Baltic Sea in Chaps. 4, 5 and 9–11 show their great ability to simulate various
circulation processes with a high accuracy.
Acknowledgements This overview is a contribution to the BalticWay project, supported by the
funding from the Finnish Academy (KM), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF),
Germany, and the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 217246 with the joint Baltic Sea research and development programme
BONUS. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Prof. Matti Leppäranta to the
material used here from the book (Leppäranta and Myrberg 2009).
References
Alenius P, Leppäranta M (1982) Statistical features of hydrography in the northern Baltic Sea. In:
Proceedings of the 13th conference of Baltic oceanographers, Helsinki, August 24–27, 1982,
vol 1, pp 95–104
Alenius P, Nekrasov A, Myrberg K (2003) The baroclinic Rossby-radius in the Gulf of Finland.
Cont Shelf Res 23:563–573
Andrejev O, Myrberg K, Alenius P, Lundberg PA (2004) Mean circulation and water exchange
in the Gulf of Finland—a study based on three-dimensional modelling. Boreal Environ Res
9:1–16
Andrejev O, Sokolov A, Soomere T, Värv R, Viikmäe B (2010) The use of high-resolution
bathymetry for circulation modelling in the Gulf of Finland. Est J Eng 16:187–210
Andrejev O, Soomere T, Sokolov A, Myrberg K (2011) The role of spatial resolution of a threedimensional hydrodynamic model for marine transport risk assessment. Oceanologia 53:309–
334
BACC Author Team (2008) Assessment of climate change for the Baltic Sea basin. Springer,
Berlin, 473 pp
Beletsky D, Schwab D, McCormick M (2006) Modeling the 1998–2003 summer circulation and
thermal structure in Lake Michigan. J Geophys Res Oceans 111:C10010
Bergström S, Carlsson B (1994) River runoff to the Baltic Sea: 1950–1990. Ambio 23:280–287
Cushman-Roisin BJ, Beckers J-M (2011) Introduction to geophysical fluid dynamics: physical and
numerical aspects. Elsevier/Academic Press, Amsterdam/San Diego, 828 pp
Dietrich G, Kalle K, Ostapoff F (1963) General oceanography: an introduction. Wiley, New York.
German original: Dietrich, G, Kalle K, (1957), Allegemeinde Meereskunde. Gebrüder Bornträger, Berlin, 492 pp
61
reality is different. For example, the best available gridded Baltic Sea bathymetry
with a resolution of 1 nautical mile (Seifert et al. 2001) is not up-to-date for several
sub-basins and there is an urgent need to construct a higher-resolution bathymetry.
There are several attempts to increase the formal resolution of this dataset to 0.5
nautical miles by means of interpolation of the existing information (Zhurbas et al.
2008a, 2008b, Laanemets et al. 2009). Nevertheless, much of the dynamics of the
Baltic Sea is apparently significantly affected by the local topography. As a first approximation, this problem was solved for the Gulf of Finland by means of manually
re-digitizing information from navigational maps (Andrejev et al. 2010), which obviously is not the proper form of information technology in the 21st century but still
quite adequately reflects the pool of problems faced by the Baltic Sea oceanographers.
Even if there are still problems which are partly unsolved, 3D modelling efforts
of the Baltic Sea in Chaps. 4, 5 and 9–11 show their great ability to simulate various
circulation processes with a high accuracy.
Acknowledgements This overview is a contribution to the BalticWay project, supported by the
funding from the Finnish Academy (KM), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF),
Germany, and the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 217246 with the joint Baltic Sea research and development programme
BONUS. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Prof. Matti Leppäranta to the
material used here from the book (Leppäranta and Myrberg 2009).
References
Alenius P, Leppäranta M (1982) Statistical features of hydrography in the northern Baltic Sea. In:
Proceedings of the 13th conference of Baltic oceanographers, Helsinki, August 24–27, 1982,
vol 1, pp 95–104
Alenius P, Nekrasov A, Myrberg K (2003) The baroclinic Rossby-radius in the Gulf of Finland.
Cont Shelf Res 23:563–573
Andrejev O, Myrberg K, Alenius P, Lundberg PA (2004) Mean circulation and water exchange
in the Gulf of Finland—a study based on three-dimensional modelling. Boreal Environ Res
9:1–16
Andrejev O, Sokolov A, Soomere T, Värv R, Viikmäe B (2010) The use of high-resolution
bathymetry for circulation modelling in the Gulf of Finland. Est J Eng 16:187–210
Andrejev O, Soomere T, Sokolov A, Myrberg K (2011) The role of spatial resolution of a threedimensional hydrodynamic model for marine transport risk assessment. Oceanologia 53:309–
334
BACC Author Team (2008) Assessment of climate change for the Baltic Sea basin. Springer,
Berlin, 473 pp
Beletsky D, Schwab D, McCormick M (2006) Modeling the 1998–2003 summer circulation and
thermal structure in Lake Michigan. J Geophys Res Oceans 111:C10010
Bergström S, Carlsson B (1994) River runoff to the Baltic Sea: 1950–1990. Ambio 23:280–287
Cushman-Roisin BJ, Beckers J-M (2011) Introduction to geophysical fluid dynamics: physical and
numerical aspects. Elsevier/Academic Press, Amsterdam/San Diego, 828 pp
Dietrich G, Kalle K, Ostapoff F (1963) General oceanography: an introduction. Wiley, New York.
German original: Dietrich, G, Kalle K, (1957), Allegemeinde Meereskunde. Gebrüder Bornträger, Berlin, 492 pp