Numerical modeling of tides in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt

Abstract

A vertically integrated two‐dimensional (2‐D) and a five‐layer three‐dimensional (3‐D) numerical models were developed to compute the tides in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The computational grid used to schematize the Gulf has a horizontal resolution of 3 × 3 km and consists of a lattice of 23 × 100 points in the 2‐D model and five such lattices in the 3‐D model. Both 2‐D and 3‐D simulations clearly revealed the Kelvin wave nature of the tide with partial reflection. The M₂ simulations also showed a strong tidal signature in the southern sector as compared to the northern part. For the 3‐D simulations, the horizontal and vertical eddy viscosity coefficients and the coefficient of bottom friction were respectively set to 3 × 10⁶ cm²/s, 200 cm²/s, and 0.001. The tidal range decreases from the entrance of the Gulf of Suez toward the Bank of Tor where it reaches a small value and then increases again to about 1.5 m at Suez. A difference of six hours exists between the times of high water at the southern and northern ends of the Gulf. Quantitatively the agreement between the observed and computed tide is better in the 2‐D simulation than in the 3‐D simulation. However, the counterclockwise gyres in the top three layers of the 3‐D model (upper 30 m) during slack water following the flood tide do not appear in the 2‐D simulation.

Keywords:

• Egypt
• Gulf of Suez
• modeling
• tidal currents
• tides