Date of Award

Fall 1984

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Ocean & Earth Sciences

Program/Concentration

Oceanography

Committee Director

Chester E. Grosch

Committee Member

Donald R. Johnson

Committee Member

William D. Lakin

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.O35S63

Abstract

A method is developed to model the circulation of a barotropic, 8-plane ocean under an imposed steady wind stress. The model includes the effect of both horizontal and vertical friction along with nonlinear advection of vorticity. Implementing the method involves solving the unsteady quasigeostrophic potential-vorticity equation using a compact finite difference scheme (Gatski, Grosch, and Rose, 1982).

Once developed, this model is used in four separate numerical experiments. In each experiment, a model ocean with an initial flow field is driven to a steady state solution. Vertical viscosity is held constant in the first three experiments while lateral viscosity is decreased for each experiment. In the fourth experiment, vertical viscosity is relaxed while lateral viscosity is held constant.

Results show westward intensification in each of the experiments. Rossby waves appear to form in the north-west region of the computational domain in the less viscous fourth experiment.

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DOI

10.25777/0kyz-e151

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