Abstract

Before the publication of this article, Stommel (1948) and Munk (1950) published their linear, frictional models of steady wind-driven ocean gyres. The innovative advance they introduced was that their models included western boundary currents (e.g., the Gulf Stream)for the first time. These were really exciting advances. Yet, these models had some dreamlike qualities (to paraphrase Stommel) in that the flow patterns were very smooth, that the intense current always hugged the western boundary, and that the eastward interior flow is broadly distributed across latitudes...

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