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Stommel explains why the fast currents are on the west

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In a short paper in the Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Henry Stommel demonstrated that the asymmetry of ocean gyres follows from the variation of the Coriolis parameter with latitude. In a model ocean with a constant Coriolis parameter the wind-driven circulation is symmetric; allowing it to vary crowds the streamlines into a narrow, intense boundary layer on the western side. This is why the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio exist and why there is no eastern equivalent.

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Assembled from 24 blocks · 1 evidence · 15 related

  1. Story
  2. In a short paper in the Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Henry Stommel demonstrated that the asymmetry of ocean gyres follows from the variation of the Coriolis parameter with latitude. In a model ocean with a constant Coriolis parameter the wind-driven circulation is symmetric; allowing it to vary crowds the streamlines into a narrow, intense boundary layer on the western side. This is why the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio exist and why there is no eastern equivalent.
  3. Knowledge
  4. North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
  5. Western Intensification of Wind-Driven Gyres
  6. Henry Stommel
  7. Stommel explains why the fast currents are on the west
  8. Connections
  9. Henry Stommel
  10. Western Intensification of Wind-Driven Gyres
  11. North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
  12. Western Intensification of Wind-Driven Gyres
  13. Stommel explains why the fast currents are on the west
  14. North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
  15. Gulf Stream
  16. Kuroshio
  17. Henry Stommel
  18. Stommel explains why the fast currents are on the west
  19. Ekman Transport and the Ekman Spiral
  20. Western Intensification of Wind-Driven Gyres
  21. Gulf Stream
  22. Stommel explains why the fast currents are on the west
  23. Evidence
  24. Variation of the Coriolis parameter with latitude — the beta effect — crowds the return flow of a wind-driven gyre into a narrow, intense western boundary current; with a constant Coriolis parameter the circulation is symmetric. Located by citation and described from teaching notes and commemorative accounts; the 1948 paper was not fetched.
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/atlas?object=EVT_STOMMEL_1948&experience=EVT_STOMMEL_1948