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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Adrian Constantin, Emeritus Professor Robin Johnson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2018 The Authors We show that a consistent shallow-water approximation of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation written in a spherical, rotating coordinate system produces, at leading order in a suitable limiting process, a general linear theory for wind-induced ocean currents which goes beyond the limitations of the classical Ekman spiral. In particular, we obtain Ekman-type solutions which extend over large regions in both latitude and longitude; we present examples for constant and for variable eddy viscosities. We also show how an additional restriction on our solution recovers the classical Ekman solution (which is valid only locally).
Author(s): Constantin A, Johnson RS
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
Year: 2019
Pages: Epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 29/12/2018
Acceptance date: 02/04/2018
Date deposited: 11/02/2019
ISSN (print): 0967-0645
ISSN (electronic): 1879-0100
Publisher: Pergamon Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.12.007
DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.12.007
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