Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:26:18.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

High Reynolds number flow past an equatorial island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

Ross Hendry  and
Carl Wunsch
Ross Hendry
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Carl Wunsch
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A survey of the density field in the immediate vicinity of Jarvis Island was made in April 1971. The island is isolated and is situated in the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent, thus presenting the opportunity to study a high Reynolds number (∼ 109) stratified shear flow. Large deflexions of the isopycnals were observed near the island. Solutions derived from the perfect-fluid equations of Drazin (1961) axe in reasonable agreement with the observed mass field in the upstream region. Downstream, a wake region was apparent, but the dynamics of the wake are obscure. A coefficient of pressure deficit in the wake is in the same range as values computed from homogeneous laboratory flows, but baroclinic effects are observed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , 20 March 1973 , pp. 97 - 114
Copyright
© 1973 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barkley, R. A. 1972 Johnston Atoll's wake. J. Mar. Res. 30, 201–215.Google Scholar
Berger, E. & Wille, R. 1972 Periodic flow phenomena. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 4, 313–340.Google Scholar
Chopra, K. P. & Hubert, L. F. 1965 Mesoscale eddies in wakes of islands. J. Atmoe. Sci. 22, 652–657.Google Scholar
Drazin, P. G. 1961 On the steady flow of a fluid of variable densit.y past an obstacle. Tellus, 13, 239–251.Google Scholar
Gibson, C. H. & Williams, R. B. 1972 Measurements of turbulence and turbulence mixing in the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent. Presented at Int. Xymp. on Oceanography of the South Pacijc, Wellington, New Zealand (unpublished manuscript).
Hawthorne, W. R. & Martin, M. E. 1955 The creation of secondary vorticity in the flow over a hemisphere due to density gradient and shear. Proc. Roy. Xoc. A 232, 184–195.Google Scholar
Hoga, N. G. 1972 Steady flow past an island with application to Bermuda. Gwphys. Fluid Dyn. 4, 55–81.Google Scholar
Knauss, J. A. 1960 Measurements of the Cromwell Current. Deep Sea Res. 6, 265–285.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. 1932 Hydrodynamics, 6th edn. Dover.
Lighthill, M. J. 1956 Drift. J. F'Euid Mech. 1, 31–53.Google Scholar
Roshko, A. 1961 Experiments on the flow past a cylinder at very high Reynolds number. J. Fluid Mech. 10, 345–356.Google Scholar
Schooley, A. H. & Stewart, R. W. 1963 Experiments with a self-propelled body submerged in a fluid with a vertical density gradient. J. Fluid Mech. 15, 83–96.Google Scholar
Stockhausen, P. J., Clark, C. B. & Kennedy, J. F. 1966 Three-dimensional momentumless wakes in density-stratified liquids. Hydrodynamics Laboratory, M.I.T. Rep. no. 93.Google Scholar
Sverdrup, H. U., Johnson, M. W. & Fleming, R. H. 1942 The Ocean, Their Physics, Chemistry and General Biology. Prentice-Hall.
Taft, B. A., Hickey, B., Wunsch, C. & Baker, D. J. 1973 Equatorial currents at 150° W in April 1971. In preparation.
Tsuchiya, M. 1968 Upper Waters of the Intertropical Pacific. Johns Hopkins Press.
Wunsch, C. 1972 Temperature microstructure on the Bermuda slope with application to the mean flow. Tellus, 24 (a), 350–367.Google Scholar