Canal Models of Sea Level and Salinity Variations in the Baltic and Adjacent Waters

Many years ago the present author started work on sea level (SL) problems (Svansson 1959). The Skagerrak, the Kattegat, the Belt Sea and the Baltic were treated as canals. Sea levels and water transports were computed by numerical integration (an explicit method), the sectioning being mostly copied from Neumann (1941). Later the method was improved (Svansson 1966 and 1968) but only some parts of the area were included. In this paper the results of the numerical computations of sea levels and transports hitherto published by the present author are summarized (Ch. 25). Then work with another numerical method, an implicit one allowing longtime steps applied on a simple system of canals, is presented (Ch. 26). Furthermore this model is combined with a model for salinity variations, among other things used in an attempt to explain an interesting connection between the variations of the sea level of the Baltic and of the salinity of the Kattegat. The mathematical background and the numerical scheme will be found in Chapters 21—23, while Chapter 1 is a descriptive part presenting background information