Vagn Walfrid Ekman

Assembled from 15 blocks · 1 evidence · 12 related

1. Story
2. Swedish oceanographer who, at Fridtjof Nansen's suggestion, worked out mathematically why Arctic sea ice drifts at an angle to the wind. His 1905 paper "On the Influence of the Earth's Rotation on Ocean-Currents" derived the spiral of velocity with depth that carries his name and the ninety-degree net transport that follows from it. The result is the foundation of wind-driven circulation theory: gyres, western boundary currents and coastal upwelling are all consequences of it.
3. Knowledge
4. Ekman Transport and the Ekman Spiral
5. Vagn Walfrid Ekman
6. Connections
7. Ekman Transport and the Ekman Spiral
8. Ekman publishes the theory of wind-driven surface transport
9. North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
10. Coastal and Equatorial Upwelling
11. Vagn Walfrid Ekman
12. Nansen observes ice drifting to the right of the wind
13. Ekman publishes the theory of wind-driven surface transport
14. Evidence
15. 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.