Journal Information

Online ISSN: 1520-0485
Print ISSN: 0022-3670
Publishing Frequency: Monthly

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Volume 33, Issue 2 (February 2003)
Fox-Kemper, Baylor, Raffaele Ferrari, Joseph Pedlosky, 2003: On the Indeterminacy of Rotational and Divergent Eddy Fluxes*. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 33, 478–483.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(2003)033<0478:OTIORA>2.0.CO;2

On the Indeterminacy of Rotational and Divergent Eddy Fluxes*

Baylor Fox-Kemper

Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography and Ocean Engineering, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Raffaele Ferrari

Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Joseph Pedlosky

Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts





Abstract

The decomposition of an eddy flux into a divergent flux component and a rotational flux component is not unique in a bounded or singly periodic domain. Therefore, assertions made under the assumption of uniqueness, implicit or explicit, may be meaningless. Nondivergent, irrotational perturbations are allowed to any decomposition that may affect naive interpretation of the flux field. These perturbations are restricted, however, so that unique diagnostics can be formed from the flux field.

Received: May 21, 2002; Accepted: September 3, 2002

Corresponding author address: Baylor Fox-Kemper, MIT Rm. 54-1715, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139. Email:

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Markus Jochum, Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli. (2005) Reply. Journal of Physical Oceanography 35:8, 1497-1500
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