Abstract
Abstract The response of a rectangular, flat-bottom, eddy-resolving, quasigeostrophic ocean to a steady, double-gyre wind stress is studied to assess the sensitivity of the solutions to a partial-slip lateral boundary condition in which tangential stress is proportional to tangential velocity. The constant of proportionality (α) has limiting values of zero and infinity, corresponding to free-slip (no-stress) and no-slip conditions, respectively. Seven numerical solutions—corresponding to the α values 0.0, 2.0, 3.5, 5.0, 6.5, 8.0, and 100.0—are obtained, which span the free-slip and no-slip limits. Significant qualitative changes in the time-mean behavior of the solutions are observed to occur with increasing α. These changes include a gradual retreat of the separation points of the western boundary currents in the subtropical and subpolar gyres, a dramatic reduction in the basin-integrated reservoirs of mean and eddy kinetic energy, a weakening of bottom dissipation and its replacement by lateral dissipat...
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