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A monthly analysis of the global wind stress and the ocean transports predicted from a numerical model
Author(s) -
Bye J. A. T.,
Noye B. J.,
Sag T. W.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49710143004
Subject(s) - wind stress , climatology , geology , latitude , circumpolar star , southern hemisphere , environmental science , meteorology , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , geography , geodesy
The monthly wind stress fields over the oceans have been calculated from marine climatic data incorporating the effect of thermal stability. The resulting angular momentum balance due to frictional torques indicates that the drag coefficients used in the study are essentially correct. A half‐yearly oscillation of zonal wind stress in high temperate latitudes in the southern hemisphere is clearly evident. The curl of the wind stress computed from the wind stress data has been used as the driving for a numerical model of the transports of a homogeneous flat‐bottomed world ocean. The variations of the ocean transports obtained are comparable with the rather sparse data except in the case of the Circumpolar Current and the Gulf Stream.