The Influence of a Steady Baroclinic Deep Ocean On the Shelf: The Vertically Well-Mixed Case

Abstract

Abstract Many coastal regions in the world ocean are characterized by well-mixed conditions to shelf depth in the density field during the winter season. In these situations it is appropriate to construct a model based on the assumption that the shelf is vertically well mixed. Such a model has been constructed assuming that (i) vertical mixing of momentum is stronger than either horizontal mixing or inertial effects; (ii) the density field is also vertically well mixed, i.e., varies only in horizontal at zero order in the expansion in the vertical Peclet number, (iii) the cross-shelf scale is small compared to the alongshelf scale; (iv) depth varies only in cross-shelf direction. The transport streamfunction equation and the advective density equation can then be combined into a single model equation by noting that in the vertically well-mixed flow, density is conserved as it is advected along streamlines. This model is used to study two different configurations quite common for shelf circulations in the ...