Abstract
Observations show that isopycnic surfaces in large-scale currents in the ocean do not deviate strongly from horizontal planes (the average equilibrium positions). This indicates that, generally speaking, not the entire potential energy of the ocean but only the part called the available potential energy (a notion introduced by Lorenz, 1955) can be transformed into kinetic energy. Vulis and Monin (1975) used the existing data to estimate the average density of the available potential energy as 7 x 102 J/m3 whereas the average potential energy density (1/V) ∫ gϱz dV is estimated as 2 x 107 J/m3.
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© 1986 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Kamenkovich, V.M., Koshlyakov, M.N., Monin, A.S. (1986). Theory of Ocean Eddies. In: Kamenkovich, V.M., Koshlyakov, M.N., Monin, A.S. (eds) Synoptic Eddies in the Ocean. Environmental Fluid Mechanics, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4502-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4502-9_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8506-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-4502-9
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