(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1992-03)
Klinger, Barry A.
Rotating baroclinic and barotropic boundary currents flowing around a corner
in the laboratory were studied in order to discover the circumstances under which
eddies were produced at the corner. Such flows are reminiscent of oceanic coastal
flows around capes. When the baroclinic currents, which consisted of surface flows
bounded by a density front, encountered a sharp corner, immediately downstream
of the corner an anticyclone grew in the surface layer for an angle of greater than
40 degrees. Varying the initial condition of the flow or the depth of the lower layer
did not noticeably affect the gyre's properties except for its growth speed, which was
greater when the lower layer was shallower. The barotropic currents were pumped
along a sloping bottom, and also formed anticyclonic gyres which quickly attained
an approximately steady state. For a given topography, the size of the gyre was
proportional to the inertial radius u/f. Volume flux calculations based on the surface
velocity revealed vertical shear which increased with gyre size. Hydraulic models
were also applied to flow around gently curving topography to determine the critical
separation curvature as a function of upstream parameters.
