Stommel explains why the fast currents are on the west
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.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Henry Stommel · person · United States · not located
- Western Intensification of Wind-Driven Gyres · natural phenomenon · Global ocean · not located
- North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre · natural phenomenon · North Atlantic · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The westward intensification of wind-driven ocean currents
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.
Transactions, American Geophysical Union (Eos) · 1948 · Partly verified
Stommel, H., Eos Trans. AGU 29(2), 202–206, doi:10.1029/TR029i002p00202