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A determination of the wind-driven ocean circulation from the vorticity budget of the atmosphere

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Summary

The annual mean distribution of the surface stress curl over the Northern Hemisphere has been estimated from the horizontal vorticity advection in the atmosphere by using the upper-wind statistics as published byCrutcher [2]3). The results are used to compute the wind-driven mass transport (Sverdrup transport) in North Atlantic and North Pacific. The calculated intensity of the Gulf Stream is largest at the latitude 35°N, where a mass transport of 45×106 tons sec−1 is obtained; for the maximum intensity of the Kuroshio current a value of 60×106 tons sec−1 is obtained.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Finnish Meteorological Office, Helsinki

    E. O. Holopainen

Authors
  1. E. O. Holopainen
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Additional information

Research supported in part by the Section of Atmospheric Sciences, National Science Foundation, Grant GP-2561.

The research for this study was started by the author at the Department of Meteorology and Oceanography, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

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Holopainen, E.O. A determination of the wind-driven ocean circulation from the vorticity budget of the atmosphere. PAGEOPH 67, 156–165 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00880573

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00880573

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