The effects of alongshore variations in bottom topography on wind-stress-forced barotropic motion over a continental shelf and slope are studied. An idealized channel model with a weakly sloping bottom and with small-amplitude alongshore variations in topography is utilized. Perturbation methods and numerical inversion of Fourier transforms are employed. The effect...
The low-frequency [ω<0.5 cycle per day (cpd)] current fluctuations at four depths in 100 m of waterhave been investigated for two stations on the continental shelf off the coast of Oregon. One station, DB-7,was maintained during the summer of 1972 as part of the Coastal Upwelling Experiment-1 (CUE-I), and theother...
An analysis is presented of the low-frequency fluctuations [ω<0.6 cycle per day (cpd)] of the currents near the Oregon coast, based on the 1972 and 1973 measurements from moored current meters in CUE-1 and CUE-2. Let u and v denote the eastward (approximately onshore) and northward (approximately alongshore) components of...
Observations of the velocity fields over the continental shelf and slope off Oregon and off Peru have shown that there is a phase difference in the onshore-offshore direction, with the velocity fluctuations nearshore leading those offshore in time. It is shown here that the effects of bottom Ekman layer friction...
The effects of alongshore variations in bottom topography and coastline on the wind-stress-forced barotropic motion over a continental shelf and slope are studied. Perturbation methods are used to obtain solutions for forced and free continental shelf waves on an idealized continental shelf and slope with small-amplitude alongshore variations in topography....
An analysis is presented of low-frequency (<0.4 cpd) fluctuations in currents, temperature and tide gage data collected during the March-September 1976 segment of the CUEA JOINT-II experiment off the coast of Peru. The observations were made near 15°S, a region of particularly strong and persistent coastal upwelling. Conclusions about the...
A two-layer model with an idealized continental shelf and slope bottom topography is utilized to study some properties of the response of stratified coastal regions to meteorological forcing with variations in the alongshore direction. The model is such that the coastline is straight, there are no alongshore variations in the...
Velocity measurements from the continental shelf off Oregon taken during the Coastal Upwelling Experiment CUE-2 in the summer of 1973 are utilized to investigate momentum, vorticity and mass balance relationships for subinertial frequency (ω < 0.6 cpd) current fluctuations. Measurements from stations in water of depths of 54, 100 and...
Meteorological and oceanographic data for Ocean Station Vessel N (30N, 14OW) are analyzed over 20 years (1951–70) and 7 years (1964–70), respectively. A rainfall estimate is constructed for the 20-year period. The yearly average rainfall is 23 cm, far less than existing estimates. Daily and seasonal variations are presented. Heat...
Previous studies of forced, long continental shelf waves on an ƒ-plane have considered motion on the shelf and slope which is driven by an alongshore component of the wind stress, essentially through the suction of fluid into the surface layer at the coast. These studies have utilized a boundary condition,...