Assigment 2

Ekman Current
In order to understand the term Ekman transport it is necessary to have a clear understanding of
the concept known as Ekman spiral. The Ekman spiral is a theoretical model of the effect on water
of wind blowing over the ocean. Because of the
Coriolis effect the surface layer is expected to drift at a
right angle in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left
in the Southern Hemisphere. Water in the lower layers
drifts as well however not as fast as the surface water.

"The Ekman spiral is one of the oldest results in

dynamical oceanography. It was first proposed
(conceptually) by the great Norwegian explorer Fridtjof
Nansen. As part of a polar expedition in the late 1890s,
Nansen froze his ship Fram into the ice north of
Spitzbergen Island and allowed it to drift for more than
two years. During the expedition he noticed that the
drift of the boat was generally to the right of the wind.
Nansen proposed that this motion was the result of the
Coriolis force, which causes objects to veer to the right
in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the
southern hemisphere. He supposed further that as the
ice pushed on the water immediately below it, that
water would move still further to the right of the wind,
though a little more slowly. Extended down through the
water column, the result would be a spiral structure.
The mathematics behind this spiral were formalized by
V. Walfrid Ekman in 1905, the spiral itself was not seen
in the open ocean until 1986, by Jim Price, Robert
Weller, and Becky Schudlich of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution ." (above article was published by
http://www.gfdl.gov/~a1g/Ekman_spiral.html )

Plotting and Visualizating Ekman Current

s z z
u= exp cos
2 Av 4

s z z
v= exp sin
2 Av 4

1
Data for trial Manner

U10 = 5.0 ; 10.0 ; 20.0 m/s (wind speed at 10 m from LWS)

Cf = 0.001 ; 0.002 (Rougness Coefficient)
a = 1000 kg/m3 (Air Density)
= 25o ; 45o ; 50o (Latitude of location)
= 7.27 x 10-5 m2/s (Angular speed of earth motion)
Av = 1 x 10-5 m2/s

s =a.Cf.U10
f =2..sin

1. Plot Figure for :For U=5.0, Cf=0.001, =25o

a. 3D Plotting

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
1
0 4
3
9 -1 2
x 10
-2 1 9
x 10
0
-3 -1

b. 2D Plotting

2
 9
x 10
0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5
-0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
9
x 10
2. Plot Figure for :For U=10.0 m/s, Cf=0.001, =25o

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
5
15
0
9 10
x 10 -5 5 9
0 x 10
-10 -5

3
 9
x 10
1

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

-6

-7

-8

-9
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
9
x 10

2. Plot Figure for :For U=15.0 m/s, Cf=0.001, =25o

4
 2

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
1
3
0
10 2
x 10 -1 1 10
0 x 10
-2 -1

10
x 10
0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5
-0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
10
x 10

4. Plot Figure for :For U=15.0 m/s, Cf=0.001, =45o

5
 2

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
2
0 5
0
12 -2 -5
x 10
-4 -10 x 10
11
-15
-6 -20

12
x 10
1

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5
-18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2
11
x 10

5. Plot Figure for :For U=15.0 m/s, Cf=0.001, =60o

6
 2

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
4
4
2
3
13
x 10 2
0 1 13
x 10
0
-2 -1

13
x 10
3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

-0.5

-1
-0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
13
x 10

6. Plot Figure for :For U=15.0 m/s, Cf=0.007, =60o

7
 2

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10
3
2 3
14 1 2
x 10 1 14
0 0 x 10
-1 -1

14
x 10
2.5

1.5

0.5

-0.5

-1
-0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
14
x 10

Conclucion

8
 1. For adding U10, and Cf, the value of u and v is bigger.
2. For changing the latitude of location over 45o, the direction of u and v
(represented by ekman spiral) is changing.

Listing Program (MATLAB)

%PLOTTING AND VISUALIZING EKMAN TRANSPORT
close all
clear all

%Plotting for U10=15 and eta=60 degree

%Data
Cf=0.007
U10=15
omega=7.27*10^-5
rhoa=1000
eta=60*(pi/180)
Av=1*10^-5
Ts=rhoa*Cf*(U10)^2
f=2*omega*sin(eta)

%axis
z=linspace(0,10,100)
x=linspace(0,0,100)
y=linspace(0,0,100)
w=linspace(0,0,100)
rho=1025
delta=(2*Av/f)^0.5

%calculation of u and v
u = ((delta.*Ts)./((2.*rho.*Av).^0.5)).*exp(z./delta).*cos((z./delta)+(pi./4));
v = ((delta.*Ts)./((2.*rho.*Av).^0.5)).*exp(z./delta).*sin((z./delta)+(pi./4));
z=linspace(-10,0,100)

%plotting figure
feather(u,v)
figure
quiver3(x,y,z,u,v,w)