Abstract
An asymptotic analysis is made of some boundary layer phenomena in the large scale ocean circulation. The equations of motion are formulated on the sphere and the nonlinear inertial terms are assumed to be negligible. After vertical integration this leads to a boundary value problem for the transport stream function which is of singular perturbation type.
Particular attention has been paid to the influence of the shape of the ocean boundaries on the characteristics of the flow. Use is made of the method of matched asymptotic expansions in constructing approximations of the solution of the problem. It turns out that the geometry of the eastern coast is felt throughout the ocean. When a part of the eastern coast coincides with a parallelcircle a free shear layer develops westward along that circle. Moreover this type of coastal shape gives rise to the formation of a narrow intense "eastern" boundary layer that leaves the coast and propagates westward. The intensity of this boundary layer depends on the given wind stress curl. The method of constructing approximations draws heavily on the diffusion like character of the boundary layer equations.
Keywords
- Boundary Layer
- Wind Stress
- Eastern Coast
- Free Shear Layer
- Matched Asymptotic Expansion
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de Ruijter, W. (1979). Boundary layers in large scale ocean circulation. In: Verhulst, F. (eds) Asymptotic Analysis. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol 711. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0062950
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0062950
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