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A series solution of the nonlinear wind-driven ocean circulation and its inertial limit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

W. T. M. Verkley  and
J. T. F. Zimmerman
W. T. M. Verkley
Affiliation:
Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg (Texel), The Netherlands Present address and address for correspondence: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, PO Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands.
J. T. F. Zimmerman
Affiliation:
Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg (Texel), The Netherlands Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Abstract

A series solution approach to the forced and damped quasi-geostrophic barotropic vorticity equation is considered in order to examine the strongly forced and inertial limits of ocean gyre dynamics. The strongly forced limit is the limit investigated numerically by Veronis (1966b). It is shown that this limit, although superficially having the same symmetry properties as the inertial limit, is distinguishably different from the latter. After isolating the inertial limit in an appropriate way it is shown that our series solution method is able to find the ‘free mode’ and its ‘almost free correction’, that the ‘free mode’ obeys the integral criteria of Niiler (1966) and Pierrehumbert & Malguzzi (1984) and that the relationship between the streamfunction and the absolute vorticity is in general a nonlinear one.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 295 , 25 July 1995 , pp. 61 - 89
Copyright
© 1995 Cambridge University Press

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