Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Ekman transport is the net motion of fluid as the result of a balance between Coriolis and turbulent drag forces. In the picture above, the wind blowing North in the northern hemisphere creates a surface stress and a resulting Ekman spiral is found below it in the water column.
Note that is a modified pressure: we have incorporated the hydrostatic of the pressure, to take account of gravity. There are many regions where an Ekman layer is theoretically plausible; they include the bottom of the atmosphere, near the surface of the earth and ocean, the bottom of the ocean, near the sea floor and at the top of the ocean ...
The replacing upwelling water will be colder than the surrounding surface waters, again creating a strong vertical gradient in temperature that leads to the formation of a front. [2] As the location of the trade winds varies seasonally, the location of the equatorial upwelling front does so as well. [ 25 ]
Upwelling intensity depends on wind strength and seasonal variability, as well as the vertical structure of the water, variations in the bottom bathymetry, and instabilities in the currents. In some areas, upwelling is a seasonal event leading to periodic bursts of productivity similar to spring blooms in coastal waters. Wind-induced upwelling ...
In the Pacific Ocean, the increase of stratification in the eastern equatorial has found to be greater than in the western equatorial. [1] This is likely to be linked to the weakening of the trade winds and reduced upwelling in the eastern Pacific, which can be explained by the weakening of the Walker circulation. [1]
Upwelling occurs near the Galapagos Islands. This brings food supplies to the surface for Galápagos penguin. Upwelling, however, is a sporadic phenomenon; it fails to occur on a regular basis, and so the food supply comes and goes. The penguins have several adaptations to cope with this, including versatility in their breeding habits.
Wind-driven upwelling brings nutrients from deep waters to the surface which leads to biological productivity. Therefore, wind stress impacts biological activity around the globe. Two important forms of wind-driven upwelling are coastal upwelling and equatorial upwelling .
Note that the velocity vector will approach the values of the interior flow, when the takes the order of . This is the reason why d {\displaystyle d} is defined as the thickness of the Ekman layer. A number of important properties of the Ekman spiral will follow from this solution: