Interactions of Cold- and Warm-Core Rings with Environmental Shear

Abstract

Dep. Oceanogr., Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL 32306-3048, USA J (Journal-Article) M (Marine) A two-layer analytical model of cold- and warm-core rings has been constructed to explore steady interactions of isolated eddies with horizontally sheared flows around and below the eddies. Steady inviscid solutions to the quasi-geostrophic equations are found by assuming that the environmental shear is weak compared to the ring's shear. It is found that such interactions lead to elliptical rings; in contrast to expectations, the eccentricity of the rings is caused solely by the lower layer shear and is independent of the surrounding upper shear. Namely, when there is no shear in the lower layer, the ring's shape is circular, even though there may exist a surrounding upper shear ASFA 2: Ocean Technology, Policy and Non Living Resources (Q2) 2051563 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Record ...