Shelfbreak upwelling induced by alongshorecurrents: analytical and numerical results.

Autores

Miller, R., Matano, R.P. and Palma, E.D.

Publicado en

Journal of Fluid Mechanics, v. 686:239-249

Año de publicación

2011

Afiliaciones

College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5503, USA
INRIA Grenoble Rhône-Alpes, Laboratoire Jean Kuntzman, 38041 Grenoble, France
Departmento de Fisica, Universidad Nacional del Sur and Instituto Arg

Programa

CRN3

Proyecto

CRN3070

Keywords

ocean processes, shallow water flows, topographic effects

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2011.326

Resumen

Alongshore flow in the direction of propagation of coastal trapped waves can result in upwelling at the shelfbreak. The intensity of this upwelling can be comparable in magnitude to wind-driven coastal upwelling, with its associated ecological features. Recent numerical experiments by Matano & Palma indicate that this upwelling results from convergence of Ekman transport at the shelfbreak. The mechanism for this phenomenon can be understood in terms of steady solutions to the shallow water equations in the presence of Coriolis force and bottom drag. Matano & Palma interpreted their numerical results in terms of the arrested topographic wave, but did not present direct comparisons. Here we present a family of analytical solutions to the equations of the arrested topographic wave that shows striking quantitative agreement with earlier numerical results.