CROSS-EQUATORIAL INERTIAL JETS WITH SPECIAL RELEVANCE TO VERY REMOTE FORCING OF THE SOMALI CURRENT

A free inertial cross-equatorial baroclinic boundary jet is proposed as a model of the low-latitude region of the Somali Current. In this model the driving mechanism is considered to be the easterlies of the southern hemisphere, which do not reverse with season. The contribution from these winds to the Somali Current is maintained throughout the year. However, during the northeast monsoon this northward-flowing current (the east African coastal current) is opposed by the southward-flowing Somali Current, but during the southwest monsoon it is enhanced. The results of some numerical calculations that include physical processes not present in the free jet model are then given. These show that the southern hemisphere easterlies are strong enough to produce a coastal jet 6 to 8 degrees into the northern hemisphere. The physics of this numerically obtained jet are then examined and although the time and length scales are initially baroclinic, the steady jet becomes 'barotropic'. A pseudoanalytic model of this jet is then considered. © 1979.