Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques
Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques
It is shown that wind stress curl is balanced by bottom pressure torque in a zonal integral over any strip wide enough to smooth out the effect of nonlinear terms (typically about 3° of latitude). The derivation is completely general as long as the zonal wind stress is balanced by form stress at each latitude, as is known to be the case in the ocean. This implies that viscous torques are not important in western boundary currents, their place being taken by bottom pressure torques. The prediction is confirmed in the context of a global, eddy-permitting, numerical ocean model. This link between form stress and bottom pressure torques makes it easier to consider Southern Ocean dynamics and subtropical gyre dynamics in the same conceptual framework, with topographic interactions being important in both cases.
WOCE, WESTERN BOUNDARY CURRENTS, BOTTOM TOPOGRAPHY, SOUTHERN OCEAN, ANTARCTIC OCEAN, SVERDRUP BALANCE, BOTTOM PRESSURE
2871-2885
Hughes, C.W.
9b5485d7-7ff2-4ddd-beaa-3b8f064645f7
de Cuevas, B.A.
01cc697c-2832-4de6-87bf-bf9f16c1f906
2001
Hughes, C.W.
9b5485d7-7ff2-4ddd-beaa-3b8f064645f7
de Cuevas, B.A.
01cc697c-2832-4de6-87bf-bf9f16c1f906
Hughes, C.W. and de Cuevas, B.A.
(2001)
Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques.
Journal of Physical Oceanography, 31 (10), .
(doi:10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2871:WWBCIR>2.0.CO;2).
Abstract
It is shown that wind stress curl is balanced by bottom pressure torque in a zonal integral over any strip wide enough to smooth out the effect of nonlinear terms (typically about 3° of latitude). The derivation is completely general as long as the zonal wind stress is balanced by form stress at each latitude, as is known to be the case in the ocean. This implies that viscous torques are not important in western boundary currents, their place being taken by bottom pressure torques. The prediction is confirmed in the context of a global, eddy-permitting, numerical ocean model. This link between form stress and bottom pressure torques makes it easier to consider Southern Ocean dynamics and subtropical gyre dynamics in the same conceptual framework, with topographic interactions being important in both cases.
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Published date: 2001
Keywords:
WOCE, WESTERN BOUNDARY CURRENTS, BOTTOM TOPOGRAPHY, SOUTHERN OCEAN, ANTARCTIC OCEAN, SVERDRUP BALANCE, BOTTOM PRESSURE
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 8035
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/8035
ISSN: 0022-3670
PURE UUID: 91e93d72-3994-43a4-af88-ef1770dd70df
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Date deposited: 11 Aug 2004
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 04:50
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Author:
C.W. Hughes
Author:
B.A. de Cuevas
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