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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
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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

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