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 eac...
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ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:8035 2023-07-30T04:07:02+02:00 Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques Hughes, C.W. de Cuevas, B.A. 2001 https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/8035/ http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=1520-0485&volume=31&page=2871 unknown 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), 2871-2885. (doi:10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2871:WWBCIR>2.0.CO;2 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2871:WWBCIR>2.0.CO;2>). Article PeerReviewed 2001 ftsouthampton https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2871:WWBCIR>2.0.CO;2 2023-07-09T20:29:28Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton Southern Ocean Curl ENVELOPE(-63.071,-63.071,-70.797,-70.797) |
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Open Polar |
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University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
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ftsouthampton |
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description |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hughes, C.W. de Cuevas, B.A. |
spellingShingle |
Hughes, C.W. de Cuevas, B.A. Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques |
author_facet |
Hughes, C.W. de Cuevas, B.A. |
author_sort |
Hughes, C.W. |
title |
Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques |
title_short |
Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques |
title_full |
Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques |
title_fullStr |
Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques |
title_full_unstemmed |
Why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques |
title_sort |
why western boundary currents in realistic oceans are inviscid: a link between form stress and bottom pressure torques |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/8035/ http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=1520-0485&volume=31&page=2871 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-63.071,-63.071,-70.797,-70.797) |
geographic |
Southern Ocean Curl |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean Curl |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
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), 2871-2885. (doi:10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2871:WWBCIR>2.0.CO;2 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2871:WWBCIR>2.0.CO;2>). |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2871:WWBCIR>2.0.CO;2 |
_version_ |
1772820108637372416 |