Modeling SST and chlorophyll patterns in a coupled estuary-coastal system of Portugal: The Tagus case study

Simulation results reveal an adequate reproduction of the vertical thermal structure and chlorophyll concentrations. While a fairly reasonable agreement is seen for water temperature, showing no significant thermal stratification at the study area (average surface-to-bottom difference ranging from 1.3 °C to 1.6 °C), chlorophyll vertical profiles show some differences between the model results and the measurements. Maximum model bias for surface temperature is 1.4 °C and ranges from 1 to 2 mg m− 3 for chlorophyll, revealing an underestimation of the predicted chlorophyll and surface temperature for the area in the vicinity of the Tagus mouth. The general trends of surface chlorophyll and surface water temperature are satisfactorily reproduced by the model.