Slope Control in Western Boundary Currents

Intensified Diapycnal Mixing in the Midlatitude Western Boundary Currents

The wind work on oceanic near-inertial motions is suggested to play an important role in furnishing the diapycnal mixing in the deep ocean which affects the uptake of heat and carbon by the ocean as well as climate changes. However, it remains a puzzle where and through which route the near-inertial energy penetrates into the deep ocean. Using the measurements collected in the Kuroshio extensio...

Enhanced warming over the global subtropical western boundary currents

Subtropical western boundary currents are warm, fast-flowing currents that form on the western side of ocean basins. They carry warm tropical water to the mid-latitudes and vent large amounts of heat and moisture to the atmosphere along their paths, affecting atmospheric jet streams and mid-latitude storms, as well as ocean carbon uptake1–4. The possibility that these highly energetic currents ...

Gravity currents shoaling on a slope

Laboratory experiments are performed to examine gravity currents propagating into an ambient of uniformly decreasing depth. Predominantly, the study is of a surface gravity current shoaling over a bottom slope as it approaches a corner between the horizontal surface and the sloping topography. For sufficiently high Reynolds number currents, they are found to propagate at a constant speed over t...

Surface currents and slope selection in crystal growth

We face the problem to determine the slope dependent current during the epitaxial growth process of a crystal surface. This current is proportional to δ = p+ − p−, where p± are the probabilities for an atom landing on a terrace to attach to the ascending (p+) or descending (p−) step. If the landing probability is spatially uniform, the current is also proportional to the average (signed) distan...

From the western boundary currents to the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent: Modeled pathways and water mass evolutions