The wind-induced drift velocity of the freshwater layer on the sea’s surface

Abstract

The effect of an unsteady river plume on the wind drift was studied. Initially, the plume occurs as a horizontal homogeneous near-surface layer with a low density and different thicknesses being washed around by the wind in the course of time due to the vertical mixing with the underlying waters. This process is described using the one-dimensional Princeton Ocean Model (POM) with the integrated turbulence submodel. A series of numerical experiments yielded the empirical dependence of the normalized surface drift velocity modulus on the nondimensional parameters: the Ekman numbers and the relations between the buoyancy and Coriolis forces.