Abstract
For several hours around noon on most days of the year solar heating of the ocean exceeds the rate of heat loss to the atmosphere. The surface buoyancy flux is then positive. For the rest of the day and all night the buoyancy flux is negative. This daily reversal of the surface buoyancy flux has a profound effect on the ocean mixed layer. There has been a tendency to neglect it in comparison with the effect of changes in the wind stress: witness the name “wind-mixed layer” and theories of the wind-driven current starting with Ekman (1905). This paper summarizes recent modelling studies of the diurnal variation in the upper ocean, including the development of an inertial (diurnal) jet.
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Woods, J.D., Barkmann, W., Strass, V. (1985). Mixed Layer and Ekman Current Response to Solar Heating. In: Toba, Y., Mitsuyasu, H. (eds) The Ocean Surface. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7717-5_67
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7717-5_67
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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