On the geostrophic adjustment process of oceanic motions: Chen, Changsheng and Zenghao Qin, 1985. Scientia sin., (B)28(10):1093–1109

Abstract

In this paper, some important features of the geostrophic adjustment process of largescale motions in a barotropic and a baroclinic oceans are systematically investigated by means of the scale analysis. For the barotropic ocean, the constraint of the horizontal scale on the linear theory of geostrophic adjustment process is given and the dispersive mechanism of the unbalanced energy in the response of the flow field in the oceanic interior to a steady wind field is expounded. For the baroclinic ocean, the effects of the water depth and density stratification on the solution of geostrophic balance state are taken into account. As examples, some major properties of the geostrophic equilibrium state in the ocean of finite depth and in a two-layer model ocean which are different from those in the atmoshere are discussed in detail. In addition, a conservation equation for the nonlinear model is derived through introducing some simplications in which only the nonlinear potential flow and vertical transport of mass field are considered.