Abstract
In this chapter we discuss the effects of forcing the ocean by a prescribed windstress. We will start the discussion for an ocean in steady state and constant density, followed by a consideration of the effects of stratification and topography. Important concepts and results are the Ekman layers, Ekman spiral and Ekman transport, the Sverdrup transport and the Stommel/Munk gyre models of the large-scale circulation. The impact of topography and stratification on the depth-averaged flow is introduced using the concept of the JEBAR-term and the bottom pressure torque, which are both further investigated using the model BARBI. This model represents the interaction of barotropic and baroclinic fields in a minimal way. The spin-up of the wind-driven circulation by wave processes was presented in Section 8.2.6.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Olbers, D., Willebrand, J., Eden, C. (2012). The Wind-Driven Circulation. In: Ocean Dynamics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23450-7_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23450-7_14
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23449-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23450-7
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