Topographic Stress in the Oceans
Abstract
Workshop conclusions include: (1) Separation into a vorticity stress part and a gravity wave drag appears to provide a useful conceptual framework for the present. For the oceans, it appears that vorticity stress is dominant. (2) Model results indicate that the largest available scales tend to dominate the vorticity stress. It was suggested that this scale dependence will be influenced by large planetary Beta or effective bottom slope. Although smaller spatial scales made less direct contribution to stress, their role appeared to be important in model studies. Gravity wave drag will be generated by scales of bottom roughness between u/f and U/N, where U is an abyssal flow speed and N is an abyssal stability frequency. For oceanic parameters, these scales are roughly from 100 m to 1 km. (3) Direct observation of the vorticity stress in the oceans presents daunting obstacles with some consideration of vertical transfer of horizontal momentum. Laboratory experimentation appears to offer the most direct approach to observing both vorticity stress and gravity wave drag in the context of actual fluids. (edc)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 20, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA225172
Entities
People
- Greg Holloway
- Peter R. Müeller
Organizations
- Institute of Ocean Sciences