of the varying Coriolis force with latitude the gyre of the 

 general circulation around the Sargasso Sea must be strongly 

 displaced toward the west in the case of a c onstant depth of 

 the wind driven circulation. The results are very strong cur- 

 rents along the east coasts of the continents. This "westward 

 intensification" of ocean currents is obvious in the Gulf Stream 

 and the Kuro Shio, and it seems that a satisfactory explanation 

 of this striking gross feature of the oceanic circulation has been 

 given. However, remarkable exceptions are found in the South At- 

 lantic and South Pacific, and Stommel's model needs further con- 

 sideration. 



Using interesting mathematical methods, Hunk and collaborators, 

 Hidaka and others extended the theoretical research to more natural 

 wind distributions and more realistic ocean boundaries. 



Munk's investigation (1950) has served to emphasize the fun- 

 damental importance of the wind stress curl rather than of the wind 

 stress vector in determining the transport of ocean currents in 

 meridionally bounded oceans. In the case of an irrotational wind 

 field, such as a uniform west wind over an ocean of constant depth 

 bounded on its western and eastern sides, it follows that there is 

 no net mass t ransport , and that the stress is balanced by the pres- 

 sure distribution resulting from the piling up of water against the 

 lee shore. This result becomes understandable only when keeping 

 the two-dimensional model and its theoretical basis in mind. The 

 theoretical basis of the model is essentially a differential equa- 

 tion representing a vertically integrated version of the vorticity 

 equation in the case of an ocean of constant depth. It expresses 

 a balance between the lateral stress torque, the planetary vorticity » 



5 



