SEASONAL OSCILLATIONS IN A MID-LATITUDE OCEAN WITH BARRIERS TO DEEP FLOW

A two-layer linear analytic model is used to study the response of the mid-latitude ocean to the seasonal variation of the windstress. The most important component of the re-sponse is a barotropic quasi-steady Sverdrup balance. A meridional ridge such as the Antilles Arc is modeled as an infinitely thin meridional barrier that blocks the lower layer but does not protrude into the upper layer. It is found that such a barrier has little effect on the upper layer flow across the barrier. This result is obtained provided the fre-quency of the motion is low enough so that free short Rossby waves are essentially nondivergent. In this case there is little coupling between the layers for energy propagating to the east away from the barrier. A study of the dynamics of flow over a sloping botto