On the dissipation of an upper oceanic front
This study seeks to gain some insight into the role played by horizontal friction in the dissipation of an oceanic front. For this purpose, a two layer model is used. The barotropic, or external, mode is filtered out. To simplify the equations, the wind stress terms are omitted. Two cases are consid...
Guardado en:
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Articulo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
1997
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/134188 |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | This study seeks to gain some insight into the role played by horizontal friction in the dissipation of an oceanic front. For this purpose, a two layer model is used. The barotropic, or external, mode is filtered out. To simplify the equations, the wind stress terms are omitted. Two cases are considered: the coastal front and the upper ocean front. In the first case, it is shown that the larger the Ekman number, the lesser time it would take for the front to dissipate. In the second case, it is demonstrated that the average time scale of dissipation, due to horizontal friction, of an upper oceanic front is in the order of decades. Oceanic fronts do represent areas of horizontal convergence of different water masses. This convergence is due to the change of the curl of the wind stress pattern. Because of the fact that the wind stress is not considered in this study, it can be concluded that upper ocean fronts should be a permanent feature. This is the case of the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio front. |
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