Instabilities of Unsteady/Non-Parallel Ocean Flows

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: 0137023 Flierl / MIT The proposed work will examine the interactions of jets and eddies with coastlines and shelves using idealized models based on contour dynamics. The approximate model of Flierl (1999) will be extended to include tilted and curved coasts and asymmetric jets in order to determine the ways in which ocean currents meander and form eddies as they leave the coast and go into the deep ocean. Additional studies of the interaction of rings with shelves will be done with a coupled barotropic 11/2 layer model that is extended to include the beta effect. The baroclinic model will be used to study the conditions that influence eddy detachment from a coast. In cases where steady solutions are found, the linearized contour dynamics model will be used to examine the stability of these flows.