The persistent stratus clouds found west of Chile and Peru are important for the coupling of the ocean and atmosphere in the eastern Pacific and thus in the climate of the region. The relatively cool sea-surface temperatures found west of Peru and northern Chile are believed to play a role in maintaining the stratus clouds over the region. In October 2000 a buoy was deployed at 20S, 85W, a site...

The Modeling Eddies in the Southern Ocean (MESO) project uses numerical sensitivity studies to examine the role played by Southern Ocean winds and eddies in determining the density structure of the global ocean and the magnitude and structure of the global overturning circulation. A hemispheric isopycnal-coordinate ocean model (which avoids numerical diapycnal diffusion) with realistic geometry...

In this paper, the authors show the existence of global in time classical solutions to the 3D quasi-geostrophic system with Ekman pumping for any smooth initial value (possibly large). This system couples an inviscid transport equation in R+ with an equation on the boundary satisfied by the trace. The proof combines the De Giorgi regularization effect on the boundary z=0 -similar to the so call...

The first-order effects of nonlinearity on the thickness and frictionally driven flux in the Ekman layer are described for the case of an Ekman layer on a solid, flat plate driven by an overlying geostrophic flow as well as the Ekman layer on a free surface driven by a wind stress in the presence of a deep geostrophic current. In both examples, the fluid is homogeneous. Particular attention is ...

The effect of rotation on turbulent convective flow between parallel plates has been assessed with direct numerical simulations. With increasing rotation-rate an interesting transition is observed in the vertical-velocity skewness. This transition indicates a localization of motion directed away from the wall and correlates well with changes observed in the heat flux, as well as in the thermal ...

[1] The coast of central Chile is characterized by intermittent low-level along-shore southerly wind periods, called coastal jets (CJs). In this study, we take advantage of long-term satellite data to document the CJs characteristics over 2000–2007 and investigate its impact on upwelling. The CJ structure has a core some 100 km from the shore and a cross-shore scale of 160 km, and it usually la...

The diapycnal mixing, entrainment and bottom boundary layer (BBL) dynamics in simulations of dense overflows are evaluated, using a generalized coordinate ocean model that can utilize terrain-following or z-level vertical grids and uses the Mellor–Yamada (M–Y) turbulence closure scheme to provide vertical mixing coefficients. Results from idealized dense water overflow experiments at resolution...

Numerical experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of surface heating on coastal upwelling intensity. Offshore transport, isopycnal slope, and sea temperature (SST) difference between offshore regions, which represent intensity, estimated. Surface decreases Ekman transport but increases pumping by changing air-sea stability conditions. However, does not change significantly with heati...