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Cross-Shelf Eddy Heat Transport In A Wind-Free Coastal Ocean Undergoing Winter Time Cooling, James M. Pringle

Earth Sciences

A steady state cross-shelf density gradient of a wind-free coastal ocean undergoing winter time cooling is found for cooling and geometries which do not vary in the along-shelf direction. The steady state cross-shelf density gradient exists even when the average density of the water continues to increase. The steady state density gradient dan be attained in less than a winter for parameters appropriate to the mid-Atlantic Eight. The cross-shelf eddy-driven buoyancy fluxes which cause this steady state gradient are found to depend critically on bottom friction and bottom slope, and the coastal polyna solutions of Chapman and Gawarkiewicz [1997] are …