Ekman Dynamics Exercise

Refer to Knauss section on Wind Stress – Ekman Transport

Typical vertical eddy viscosity, Az = 0.01

Exercise One – Wind Stress

The wind acts on the ocean surface proportional to the square of the wind speed. In practice winds
above 10 m/s (20 knots) are quite effective at moving the surface water and initiating upwelling.

𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 = 𝜏 = 𝜌𝑎 𝐶𝐷 𝑊 2

Where

𝜌𝑎 = 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑖𝑟 = 1.3 𝑘𝑔 𝑚−3

𝐶𝐷 = 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 = 1.4𝑥10−3

𝑊 = 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑚/𝑠

Note – for more accurate calculations the drag coefficient varies with wind speed.

Make a plot of wind stress at wind speeds from 0 to 50 m/s

W=0:50;
W2=W.^2;
tau=1.3*0.0014.*W2

What are the units of wind stress?

Exercise – Ekman Depth

2𝐴
The Ekman Depth is 𝐷𝐸 = 𝜋√ |𝑓|𝑧 so it depends on latitude in f.

Example script:

lat=45
Az=0.01
De=pi*sqrt(2*Az/gsw_f(lat))

Plot Ekman depth with latitude from -90 to +90 degrees latitude.
Exercise – Maximum surface current due to wind speed

𝜏 √2𝜋
𝑉0 = 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 =
𝜌 𝐷𝑒 |𝑓|

Vo is the current at z=0, the surface. Calculate Vo for wind speeds of 30 m/s. Assume A is 0.01, f is
calculated for 40N.

*******************STOP HERE*******************

Equations of motion with wind stress

If there are no horizontal pressure gradients, no acceleration and no internal fiction the Coriolis force is
balance by friction represented by wind stress.

1 𝜕𝜏𝑥
𝜌 𝜕𝑧
=-fv

1 𝜕𝜏𝑦
𝜌 𝜕𝑧
=-fu
Exercise – Ekman Spiral

Solve for u and v with z going from 1 to 50 m . Calculate f for 40N (not the 45 they use)

This code fromLaure Zanna found Search

https://courses.seas.harvard.edu/climate/eli/Courses/EPS131/2005fall_a/sectio
ns/matlab-session.m

clear all;
% grid in x y z
xx=zeros(1,11);
yy=zeros(1,11); % define zeros for the x-y direction
zz=0:-4:-60; %define the depth
[x,y,z]=meshgrid(xx,yy,zz);

clear xx yy zz
%parameters
f=2*(7.3*10^(-5))*sin(45*pi/180); % coriolis parameter
A_v=10^-2; % friction coefficient
delta=(f/(2*A_v))^(1/2); % 1/Ekman depth

% velocity field
u=exp(delta*z).*cos(delta*z);
v=exp(delta*z).*sin(delta*z);
w=0*z; % define w=0 just for the plot
figure;
axes('position', [0.3,0.3,0.5,0.5]); %[left, bottom, width, height])
% use quiver3 to draw the Ekman spiral
quiver3(x,y,z,u,v,w);
xlabel('x','fontsize',13);
ylabel('y','fontsize',13);
zlabel('z','fontsize',13);
view(-35,45) % set the angle of view (azimuth, vertical)