Generation of annual period Rossby waves in the South Atlantic Ocean by the wind stress curl ...

• Main Author: Reason, Christopher James Charles
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: South Atlantic Ocean
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0058252; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0058252

A theoretical study is presented of generation of first mode annual period baroclinic Rossby waves by the observed wind stress curl in the South Atlantic and South West Indian Oceans. The forcing wind field for the area 15 S to 51 S, 45 W to 41 E was obtained from an harmonic analysis at the annual period of the monthly mean wind stress curl values derived from Hellerman and Rosenstein's 1983 data. The annual harmonic of the wind stress curl was then used to drive a linear, reduced gravity model of the South Atlantic and South West Indian Oceans bounded by the latitudes 15 S and 51 S and by longitudes 46 W and 50 E. Boundary geometries and oceans are represented to 1.0 and 0.2 degree accuracy, respectively, by a finite difference grid in spherical polar co-ordinates. Successive over-relaxation and a leap frog time differencing scheme are used to solve the two dimensional Rossby wave equation which includes relative vorticity and a Rossby radius that varies with latitude. By assuming quasi-geostrophy, the ...