Ekman publishes the theory of wind-driven surface transport

Assembled from 18 blocks · 1 evidence · 12 related

1. Story
2. Ekman's paper "On the Influence of the Earth's Rotation on Ocean-Currents" showed that friction transmitted downward from the wind, combined with the Coriolis force, produces a velocity spiral with depth and a net transport perpendicular to the wind. The 20-to-40-degree surface deflection Nansen saw falls out of the same solution. Convergence and divergence of this transport is what drives both the gyres and coastal upwelling.
3. Knowledge
4. Ekman Transport and the Ekman Spiral
5. Vagn Walfrid Ekman
6. Ekman publishes the theory of wind-driven surface transport
7. Connections
8. Vagn Walfrid Ekman
9. Ekman Transport and the Ekman Spiral
10. Ekman Transport and the Ekman Spiral
11. Ekman publishes the theory of wind-driven surface transport
12. North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
13. Coastal and Equatorial Upwelling
14. Vagn Walfrid Ekman
15. Nansen observes ice drifting to the right of the wind
16. Ekman publishes the theory of wind-driven surface transport
17. Evidence
18. Wind stress transmitted downward through a rotating ocean produces a velocity spiral with depth and a net transport at right angles to the wind, explaining Nansen's Fram observation that Arctic ice drifts 20–40 degrees to the right of the wind. The exact issue and page range were not confirmed and the paper was not consulted; the account here rests on biographical and teaching sources.