What Causes The Ekman Spiral

Ekman Spiral Event & Ekman Ship | Ekman Layer

Ekman Spiral

The Ekman spiral is a graphical representation of the earth'due south wind patterns. It was developed past Swedish meteorologist, Vagn Walfrid Ekman in 1904.

The name Ekman spiral derives from the fact that information technology rises at an angle of 17.6 degrees relative to the basis airplane (the imaginary surface on which all points are level). This bending is called the Ekman angle after the Swedish scientist Vagn Walfrid Ekman who did extensive piece of work on ocean surface currents. The helix is formed by rotating an imaginary line through the center of a circumvolve at this bending effectually the center of the circumvolve.

The Ekman spiral is made up of 3 parts:

An equator line that represents the surface winds with their direction and speed; this corresponds to breadth on World's surface
A set of concentric circles that correspond constant pressure levels at various altitudes above sea level (MSL) or footing level (AGL), too known equally geopotential height; these represent to longitude on earth'south surface.
A ready of lines connecting points where the wind changes from one direction to some other

The spiral is created by drawing a series of concentric circles on newspaper and so plotting points where the lines intersect with each other.

A point's position on the spiral indicates its velocity relative to some other point, which tin can be determined past measuring the angle betwixt 2 adjacent lines

Ekman Spiral Issue & Coriolis upshot

Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874-1954) developed the Ekman Spiral in 1902 to explain the Coriolis effect. As surface water molecules are pulled by the force of the current of air, they drag deeper layers of water molecules underneath them. Every layer of water molecules is driven by friction from the shallower layer to the deeper layer, and each deeper layer moves more than slowly than the layer above it until the movement ends at a depth of about 100 meters (330 feet).

Ekman Spiral effect
The Coriolis impact, similar the surface water, deflects deeper h2o to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. As a effect, as the h2o depth rises, it travels more slowly to the right or left, causing a spiral impact. Since deeper layers of h2o motility more slowly than shallower layers, they "twist around" and flow in the opposite direction of the surface current.

The typical Ekman screw has been observed under sea water ice, but observations in the open up bounding main remain rare. This is due to the fact that turbulent mixing in the ocean'southward surface layer has a heavy diurnal cycle, as well as the fact that surface waves can destabilize the Ekman spiral.

Ekman spirals tin can be seen in the atmosphere as well. In the Northern Hemisphere, surface winds announced to blow to the left of winds aloft.

Ekman Transport

The Ekman send is a mathematical model that describes how current of air-driven currents move estrus from one location to some other.

Ekman transport is the net motion of a fluid produced by a combination of Coriolis and turbulent drag forces. The current of air blowing due north in the northern hemisphere causes surface tension, and an Ekman screw is found below it in the h2o cavalcade.

Ekman Screw and Ekman Transport

What is the difference betwixt the Ekman spiral and Ekman transport?

The Ekman spiral is a graphical representation of the magnitude and direction of ocean currents. It is created past drawing circles on a map, with each circle's size proportional to the speed of its corresponding current.

The Ekman transport on the other hand describes how water masses are transported from one region to another in an ocean basin.

The Ekman spiral is a model of the temper that predicts how air moves from high to depression pressure level whereas the Ekman transport is an equation that describes the rate at which heat or momentum are transferred between two layers of fluid with different temperatures.

The Ekman spiral is a model that predicts how body of water currents move in the Northern Hemisphere. It was created by Swedish meteorologist Vagn Walfrid Ekman and can be used to determine wind speed and direction, too as the forcefulness of h2o currents.

The Ekman transport equation is used to calculate how much estrus energy is transported from one location to another by bounding main currents

Ekman Layer

The Ekman layer is the layer in a fluid where there is a force balance between pressure gradient force, Coriolis force and turbulent elevate

The Ekman layer is a thin, stable layer reated by the current of air and waves as they mix up the elevation few millimeters of water. This layer has a loftier salt content because it comes from seawater below and evaporated spray from higher up.

Ekman layers occur both in the atmosphere and in the body of water.

The Ekman layer tin exist seen in satellite images when there are no clouds or other particles to obscure its visibility