Abstract
Most oceanic motions are forced by stresses and heat and fresh water fluxes at the air-sea interface. When these forcing fields are assumed to be prescribed and stochastic and when the oceanic response is assumed to be linear then the forcing problem reduces to a set of stochastically forced linear oscillators. This set can in principle be decoupled. The asymptotic response of a linear oscillator to stationary random forcing is well understood and depends on whether the oscillator is stable, unstable or neutral. The explicit decoupling requires additional simplifying assumptions as exemplified by the stochastic forcing of surface gravity waves, internal gravity waves, Rossby waves and sea-surface temperature anomalies A powerful diagnostic tool is a coherence map which desribes the coherence between the oceanic response at one location and the atmospheric forcing at another location as a function of separation for different frequancies. A simple model of the stochastic forcing of barotropic Rossby waves by fluctuations in the atmospheric windstress reproduces basic features of observed coherence maps. The model expecially accounts for the qualitative changes that occur when different oceanic variables are considered or when the frequency is changed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chave, A. D., D.S. Luther and J. H. Filloux, Variability of the windstress curl over the North Pacific: Implications for the oceanic response, J. Geophys. Res., 96, 18361–18379, 1991.
Chave, A. D., D. S. Luther and J. H. Filloux, The barotropic electromagnetic and pressure experiment. 1: Barotropic current response to atmospheric forcing, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 9565–9593, 1992.
Frankignoul, C., Sea surface temperature anomalies, and air-sea feedback in the middle latitudes, Rev. Geophys., 23, 357–390, 1985.
Frankignoul, C. and K. Hasselmann, Stochastic climate models, part 2. Applicaton to sea-surface temperature anomalies and climate variability, Tellus, 29, 289–305, 1977.
Frankignoul, C. and P. Müller, Quasi-geostrophic response of an infinite,O-plane ocean to stochastic forcing by the atmosphere, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 9, 104–127, 1979.
Hasselmann, K., Ober zufallserregte Schwingungssysteme, Zamm, 42, 465–476, 1962.
Hasselmann, K., Stochastic climate models, part 1. Theory, Tellus, 28, 473–485, 1976.
Lippert, A. and P. Müller, Direct atmospheric forcing of geostrophic eddies, part II: Coherence maps, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 25, 106–121, 1995.
Luther, D. S., A. D. Chave, J. H. Fillouxand P. F. Spain, Evidence for local and nonlocal barotropic responses to atmospheric forcing during BEMPEX, Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 949–952, 1990.
Müller, P. and C. Frankignoul, Direct atmospheric forcing of geostrophic eddies, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 11, 287–308, 1981.
Overland, J. E. and J. G. Wilson, Mesoscale varability in marine winds at mid-latitude, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 10599–10614, 1984.
Phillips, O. M., On the generation of waves by turbulent winds, J. Fluid Mech., 2, 417–445, 1957.
Rubenstein, D., A spectral model of wind-forced internal waves, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 24, 819–831, 1994.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Müller, P. (1997). Stochastic Forcing of Oceanic Motions. In: Molchanov, S.A., Woyczynski, W.A. (eds) Stochastic Models in Geosystems. The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications, vol 85. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8500-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8500-4_12
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-8502-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-8500-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive