P-Vector Spirals and Determination of Absolute Velocities
A simple method to invert the absolute geostrophic velocity on potential-density surfaces is developed based on McDougall's (1988) conservation statements on potential-density surfaces and Chu's (1995) and McDougall's (1995) P-vector concept. This method has a capability to handle a s...
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Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
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2000
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Online Access: | http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA480545 http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA480545 |
Summary: | A simple method to invert the absolute geostrophic velocity on potential-density surfaces is developed based on McDougall's (1988) conservation statements on potential-density surfaces and Chu's (1995) and McDougall's (1995) P-vector concept. This method has a capability to handle a system with diapycnal velocities and non-coincidence of potential-density and neutral surfaces. The validity of the inversion is the existence of the P-vector spirals instead of the existence of the velocity spirals (usually called the Beta-spirals). We use a climatological T, S dataset for the Atlantic Ocean from the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) to show the benefit of using P-vector spirals in inverting the velocity field. Published in Journal of Oceanography, v56, p591-599, 2000. |
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