Nonlinear model simulations of a coastal upwelling system show frontal instabilities that initiate at short alongshore scales but rapidly evolve to longer wavelengths. Several factors associated with the nonstationarity of this basic state contribute to the progression in scale. A portion of the system evolution is associated with the external...
The growth of linear disturbances to stable and unstable time-periodic basic states is analyzed in an asymptotic
model of weakly nonlinear, baroclinic wave–mean interaction. In this model, an ordinary differential equation
for the wave amplitude is coupled to a partial differential equation for the zonal-flow correction. Floquet vectors,
the eigenmodes...
A two-dimensional, frictionless, nonlinear model of coastal upwelling is reexamined. The model has been solved previously at steady state and as an initial-value problem. The previous solution to the initial-value problem is inconsistent with the steady-state solution. A new solution to the spinup problem is presented that approaches the existing...
The predictability of coastal ocean circulation over the central Oregon shelf, a region of strong wind-driven
currents and variable topography, is studied using ensembles of 50-day primitive equation ocean model
simulations with realistic topography, simplified lateral boundary conditions, and forcing from both idealized
and observed wind time series representative of...
Estimates of three components of an uncertainty budget for a coastal ocean model in a wind-forced regime
are made based on numerical simulations. The budget components behave differently in the shelf regime,
inshore of the 200-m isobath, and the slope-interior regime, between the 200-m isobath and a fixed longitude
(1268W)...
A mesoscale atmospheric model is used to address the characteristics of stratified flow bounded by a side
wall along a varying coastline. Initial Froude number values are varied through alteration of marine inversion
strength, permitting examination of supercritical, subcritical, and transcritical flow regimes encountering several
coastal configurations. Consistent with shallow...
A recently proposed reduced-gravity model of the warm-water branch of the middepth meridional overturning circulation in a rectangular basin with a circumpolar connection is extended to include time dependence. The model describes the balance between gain of warm water through northward Ekman advection across the circumpolar current, loss of warm...
The diffusivity dependence of internal boundary layers in solutions of the continuously stratified, diffusive
thermocline equations is revisited. If a solution exists that approaches a two-layer solution of the ideal thermocline
equations in the limit of small vertical diffusivity kᵥ, it must contain an internal boundary layer that collapses
to...
The influence of localized regions of intensified vertical mixing on the stratification and circulation in a large-scale ocean model is investigated with idealized numerical experiments. Numerical solutions are obtained of a closed-basin, single-hemisphere ocean model based on the planetary geostrophic equations. Mesoscale eddy effects are minimized, and vertical mixing at...
A simple quasi-equilibrium analytical model is used to explore hypotheses related to observed spatial correlations between sea surface temperatures and wind stress on horizontal scales of 50–500 km. It is argued that a plausible contributor to the observed correlations is the approximate linear relationship between the surface wind stress and...