The influence of wind-driven ocean circulation on earth rotation
In this work, the authors have studied the role of barotropic, wind driven ocean circulation in exciting polar motion and the length of day at weekly to seasonal frequencies. The rotation of the earth is variable in length of day and in position of the rotation pole. The sources of these variations are not fully known. They have used the Cox and Bryan (1984) general circulation ocean model driven by daily NMC global winds to compute first the ocean currents and sea level variations, and then the rotational excitation functions, between 1980 and 1986. It is found that the wind driven ocean circulation can explain much of the residual power in the length of day which is not accounted for by atmospheric angular momentum. It also appears that there is significant power, as much as 50% of that needed, in polar motion excitation at the Chandler and seasonal frequencies.
- Research Organization:
- State Univ. of New York, Binghamton, NY (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 5673408
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
540310* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
AIR-WATER INTERACTIONS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
CROSS SECTIONS
CURRENTS
EARTH PLANET
EXCITATION FUNCTIONS
FUNCTIONS
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GEOLOGY
LEVELS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MOTION
OCEANIC CIRCULATION
PLANETS
ROTATION
SEA LEVEL
VARIATIONS
WATER CURRENTS
WIND