ABSTRACT 



A wind system may create an ocean current by differential 

 mixing in a two layer ocean; such a current may be imposed on other 

 currents due to the wind through effects of stress, piling up of 

 water and mass transport by waves. In one situation studied, such 

 differential mixing produced an average transport of water about 

 ten to twenty percent of the transport due to wind stress. 



¥IND ACTION ON THE OCEAN 



Sverdrup^has summarized the processes through which wind 

 causes currents in the ocean: 



a) currents directly driven by wind stress 



b) currents indirectly maintained by piling up of 

 stratified water 



c) mass transport of water by wind waves. 



In addition to these effects on the ocean, wind also causes mixing 

 between the cold thermocline waters and the warm, surface layer of 

 the ocean. The following discussion shov;s that through such mixing 

 action the wind may cause an additional current (in an ocean with 

 a stable density stratification). 



It will be assumed that a strong wind mixes more cold 

 water upward into the warm mjxed layer than does a v;eak wind. 

 Observations tend to verify this; for example, in Figure 1 the bathy- 

 thermograph trace of a ship at 45°N, 4-5°W for 8 October is contrasted 

 * The Oceans . 1%2, pp. ^89-503. 



