Asymmetry of interoceanic fresh-water and heat fluxes.

According to recent hydrological and meteorological studies, the meridional flux of fresh water and heat is remarkably different from ocean to ocean. These fluxes have been found to be consistent with the temperature and salinity distribution in the northern hemisphere. However, an attempt to map these fluxes on the temperature-salinity plane of a southern latitude leads to such large amplitudes of water-mass volume flux that it seems that there may be something wrong about them.

Float trajectories in simple kinematic flows.

A simple kinematic model has been used to compute Lagrangian trajectories. Although it is certainly too simple to model geophysical flows, it has provided insights into the behavior of Lagrangian tracers. In particular, the existence of trapping regions has been shown to greatly increase the dispersion rate of tracers and to lead to net tracer displacements when the Eulerian mean flow is zero.

Determination of water mass properties of water pumped down from the Ekman layer to the geostrophic flow below.

In a subtropical gyre, the convergent Ekman layer forces water downward into the geostrophic flow below. The properties and depth of the mixed layer vary considerably during the course of the year, but this variability does not penetrate into the geostrophic region. Evidently there is some process at work that selects only late winter water for actual net downward pumping.

Oceanic warming of western Europe.

In the northern North Atlantic off Europe, deep convection flushes buoyancy and heat out of the upper ocean each winter. It is replaced by horizontal advection during the remainder of the year. Absolute geostrophic currents can be computed from an application of the heat conservation equation.

Circulation on the continental shelf.

A simple analysis is presented of a hypothetical shelf-circulation that could apply to the eastcoast continental shelf of North America under winter conditions.