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A three-dimensional model of the wind-driven ocean circulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

J. A. Johnson
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Physics, University of East Anglia, Norwich

Abstract

A linear three-dimensional model of the wind-driven ocean circulation is treated by boundary-layer methods. The interior flow, below the Ekman layer, differs from the classical gyres of Munk (1950). There is a north-eastwards transport of fluid from the western boundary current of the southern gyre across the latitude of zero wind stress curl into the northern gyre. A return flow in the Ekman layer preserves continuity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1968 Cambridge University Press

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References

Arons, A. R. & Stommel, H. 1967 Deep Sea Res. 14, 441.
Munk, W. H. 1950 J. Met. 7, 79.
Robinson, A. R. 1965 Research Frontiers in Fluid Dynamics. Ed. by R. J. Seeger and G. Temple. New York: Interscience.
Stommel, H. 1957 Deep Sea Res. 4, 149.
Stommel, H. 1958 The Gulf Stream. University of California Press.