What is mean by a geostrophic current? What will be an ideal ...

[CBme]

What is mean by a geostrophic current?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Explain the different characteristics of western and eastern boundary currents.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[gcook]

Answer to Question 1

There is a force due to gravity, acting down the gradient of the surface slope that is opposed by the Coriolis Effect. The net effect is a flow of water at approximately 90o to the slope. The result is a geostrophic current that flows approximately perpendicular to the slope of the sea surface around the gyre.

Answer to Question 2

The flow in the western part of the gyre is confined to a narrow path with a fast-flowing current (a western boundary current), which in the east is more diffuse, spread over a much larger area and with much-reduced current speeds (an eastern boundary current). Eastern boundary currents also tend to be divergent; the Ekman transport is away from the continent, thinning the surface layer along the coastline. The thinner surface layer and the divergent flow promote upwelling in these regions.

[CBme]

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[gcook]

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