• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    A new mechanism for the generation of quasi-zonal jets in the ocean

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    2012GL051861.pdf (781.0Kb)
    Date
    2012-05-16
    Author
    Wang, Jinbo  Concept link
    Spall, Michael A.  Concept link
    Flierl, Glenn R.  Concept link
    Malanotte-Rizzoli, Paola  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5224
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051861
    DOI
    10.1029/2012GL051861
    Keyword
     Rossby waves; Barotropic instability; Eastern boundary currents; Radiating instabilities; Zonal jets; Zonal striations 
    Abstract
    A simple barotropic quasi-geostrophic model is used to demonstrate that instabilities radiated from an unstable eastern boundary current can generate zonal striations in the ocean interior with realistic wavelengths and amplitudes. Nonlinear transfer of energy from the more unstable trapped modes is important for radiating modes to overcome friction. The dynamics shown here are generic enough to point to the eastern boundary current as a likely source of the observed striations extending from oceanic eastern boundaries.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L10601, doi:10.1029/2012GL051861.
    Collections
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L10601
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Hydraulics and instabilities of quasi-geostrophic zonal flows 

      Ralph, Elise A. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1994-09)
      The thesis addresses the applicability of traditional hydraulic theory to an unstable, mid-latitude jet where the only wave present is the Rossby wave modified by shear. While others (Armi 1989, Pratt 1989, Haynes et ...
    • Thumbnail

      Instability of an idealized tidal mixing front : symmetric instabilities and frictional effects 

      Brink, Kenneth H.; Cherian, Deepak A. (Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2013-11-01)
      Finite amplitude instability of an idealized tidal mixing front is considered for cases where there is an active symmetric instability during the early stages of evolution. This can happen either when the initial front is ...
    • Thumbnail

      A model of multiple zonal jets in the oceans : dynamical and kinematical analysis 

      Berloff, Pavel S.; Kamenkovich, Igor V.; Pedlosky, Joseph (American Meteorological Society, 2009-11)
      Multiple alternating zonal jets observed in the ocean are studied with an idealized quasigeostrophic zonal-channel model, with the supercritical, zonal background flow imposed. Both eastward and westward background flows ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo