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Filtering by: Funding statement This research was supported by NSF Grants 9319892 and 9402891 and by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the TOPEX/Poseidon Announcement of Opportunity, Contract 958127. Remove constraint Funding statement: This research was supported by NSF Grants 9319892 and 9402891 and by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the TOPEX/Poseidon Announcement of Opportunity, Contract 958127.

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  • The Modification of Long Planetary Waves by Homogeneous Potential Vorticity Layers

    Creator:
    de Szoeke, Roland A. and Chelton, Dudley B.
    Abstract:
    A mechanism by which long planetary waves in the ocean may propagate significantly faster than the classical long baroclinic Rossby waves is investigated. The mechanism depends on the poleward thickening of intermediate density layers and the concomitant thinning of near-surface and deep layers. These features of the mass distribution are...
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    supported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the TOPEX/Po- seidon Announcement of Opportunity, Contract

  • The Speed of Observed and Theoretical Long Extratropical Planetary Waves

    Creator:
    Killworth, Peter D., Chelton, Dudley B., and de Szoeke, Roland A.
    Abstract:
    Planetary or Rossby waves are the predominant way in which the ocean adjusts on long (year to decade) timescales. The motion of long planetary waves is westward, at speeds ≥1 cm s⁻¹ . Until recently, very few experimental investigations of such waves were possible because of scarce data. The advent...
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    nonlinearity is felt in the conser- vation of buoyancy). This was explored by Anderson and Killworth (1979) and

  • An Improved Bound for the Complex Phase Speed of Baroclinic Instability

    Creator:
    de Szoeke, Roland A.
    Abstract:
    An improved bound is obtained for the radius of the semicircle in the complex plane containing the complex phase speed of baroclinically unstable plane wave disturbances. In the limit of long waves, this bound contains a term increasing with β and decreasing with the mean stratification (i.e., decreasing with the...
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    research was supported by NSF Grants 9319892 and 9402891 and by the Jet Propulsion Lab- oratory under the

  • The Dissipation of Fluctuating Tracer Variances

    Creator:
    de Szoeke, Roland A.
    Abstract:
    The evolution of the covariance of two tracers involves a quantity called codissipation, proportional to the covariance of the gradients of the two tracers, and analogous to the dissipation of tracer variance. The evolution of the variance of a composite tracer—a linear combination of two simple, primary tracers—depends on the“composite...
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    Propulsion Laboratory under the TOPEX/Poseidon Extended Mission Announcement of Opportunity Con- tract 958127

  • Geographical Variability of the First Baroclinic Rossby Radius of Deformation

    Creator:
    Chelton, Dudley B., deSzoeke, Roland A., Schlax, Michael G., El Naggar, Karim, and Siwertz, Nicolas
    Abstract:
    Global 1° × 1° climatologies of the first baroclinic gravity-wave phase speed c¹ and the Rossby radius of deformation λ1 are computed from climatological average temperature and salinity profiles. These new atlases are compared with previously published 5° × 5° coarse resolution maps of λ₁ for the Northern Hemisphere and...
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    . This research was supported by Contract 958127 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory funded under the

  • Orthobaric Density: A Thermodynamic Variable for Ocean Circulation Studies

    Creator:
    de Szoeke, Roland A., Springer, Scott R., and Oxilia, David M.
    Abstract:
    A new density variable, empirically corrected for pressure, is constructed. This is done by first fitting compressibility (or sound speed) computed from global ocean datasets to an empirical function of pressure and in situ density (or specific volume). Then, by replacing true compressibility by this best-fit virtual compressibility in the...
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    . The size of the dp bins was dictated by the standard depths of the NODC data and ranged from 10 dbar

  • Equations of Motion Using Thermodynamic Coordinates

    Creator:
    de Szoeke, Roland A.
    Abstract:
    The forms of the primitive equations of motion and continuity are obtained when an arbitrary thermodynamic state variable--restricted only to be vertically monotonic--is used as the vertical coordinate. Natural generalizations of the Montgomery and Exner functions suggest themselves. For a multicomponent fluid like seawater the dependence of the coordinate on...
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    begin to quantify this notion, it is useful to consider the balances represented by the equations of