Handbook

This course examines the dynamics of large-scale wind-driven ocean currents. The course aims to explain why there is a broad equator-ward flow in all the major ocean basins, except the Southern Ocean, and why there are strong, poleward-flowing boundary currents such as the Gulf Stream and the East Australia Current on the western boundaries. The production of turbulence in the oceans and its role in mixing is also examined. The discussion of mixing in the ocean normally includes Kolmogoroff and Batchelor lengths, molecular mixing and diffusive boundary layers; the logarithmic boundary layer and mixing lengths; vertical mixing by wind and tidal stirring; dispersion in the ocean, its measurement, and the Taylor mechanism.