Fluctuating winds and the ocean circulation

Abstract

The fluctuating and steady response of a simple bounded ocean model to a surface wind stress which oscillates at or near one of the Rossby wave resonance frequencies of the basin is computed under the assumption that the response is limited by finite amplitude effects. It is shown that oscillations of the normal modes can never rectify in a way to produce intense boundary currents, but that motions driven not at a resonance frequency are able to produce such steady boundary layers.