Abstract
The fluid mechanics of the large-scale ocean circulation when planetary scale islands and barriers are present introduces new features to the problem of the ocean circulation. Islands introduce non simply-connected domains for the ocean circulation while barriers, representing either large island arcs or mid-ocean ridges would seem to impose strong limits on the communication between oceanic sub-basins. It is shown that the application of Kelvin’s circulation theorem is an illuminating instrument in understanding both the steady and unsteady flows in the presence of such geometry. The constraint imposed by a proper application of Kelvin’s theorem leads to non intuitive predictions for the circulation around such large islands and the production of strong zonal jets in the ocean circulation. A similar application of Kelvin’s theorem to the problem of the propagation of large-scale Rossby waves yields, for example, the surprising result that barriers with just two small gaps become essentially transparent to the passage of large-scale wave energy.
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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Pedlosky, J. (2001). Kelvin’s Theorem and the Oceanic Circulation in the Presence of Islands and Broken Ridges. In: Hodnett, P.F. (eds) IUTAM Symposium on Advances in Mathematical Modelling of Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics. Fluid Mechanics and Its Applications, vol 61. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0792-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0792-4_5
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