All-101 3 



1. Introduction , Much of the Investigation, both theo- 

 retical and observational in the field of oceanography has center- 

 ed around the dynamics of ocean currents - including the mass 

 transport of the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio Current, and the 

 general oceanic circulation. Recently interest has developed 

 regarding the response of the thermocline (the region of sharp 

 vertical gradient of density) to a time- varying wlndo 



Since the time of Ekman's first paper [ 1] , a large 

 number of papers ha^^e appeared in some o.f the geophysical jour- 

 nals dealing with various aspects of ocean currentsc However, 

 analytical investigations of the problem of general oceanic 

 circulation have met with success only in recent years. In the 

 past decade various interesting and meaningful mathematical 

 models have been suggested by numerous investigatorss Sverdrup 

 [2] and Reid [3] proposed a fairly simple model which seems to 

 give very good qualitative results for a region with only one 

 north-south boundary, Stommel [k] considered two linearized 

 models with a simplified viscous term. His very important con- 

 tribution to the overall problem is based on the difference 

 betv/een the results obtained with the two models. In one case, 

 the Coriolis term was constant and the resulting streamline 

 pattern is identical with the one in a model with no rotation* 

 In the second case, the Coriolis term varied linearly with 

 latitude and westvjard intensification resulted - a factor which 



* Numbers in square brackets refer to the bibliography at the 

 end of the paper. 



