ON THE OCEAN CURRENTS AS A THREE-DIMENSIONAL PROBLEM

In this article, Munk's well-known theory of the wind-driven ocean circulation[5] is extended to the three dimension of space.An analytical solution for the equations of motion governing the non-accelerated movement of sea water with the assumption of both constant coefficients of lateral and vertical eddy viscosity is given. The current velocities are composed of two parts: e.g. wind-driven's and gradient's. Ekman's solution concerning the wind-driven current in an ocean of infinite depth can be derived from the author's solution as a special case. With this solution, the horizontal velocity field of ocean currents may be determined in terms of the knowledge of the wind stresses and the pressure (or dynamic height) fields. The vertical component velocity can thus be derived by integrating the equation of continuity. Moreover, a scheme for numerically calculating the current velocities with special application to the three-level ocean model is designed. Finally, this article also deals briefly with the problem for numerically predicting the ocean currents.