A simple linear reduced-gravity ocean model is developed to simulate the North Water polynya located in northern Baffin Bay. The model is an extension of Pease (1987) latent-heat model for a coastal polynya. Both northerly surface wind forcing and coastal upwelling processes are taken into account in modelling the steady state and time-dependent water velocities, upper layer depth, and polynya width measured southward from its northern boundary. Also, both uniform and variable wind forcing are considered. In most of this thesis a semi-infinite domain model is used in which upwelling occurs along the eastern boundary (the Greenland coast). It is found that the steady state polynya width is a strong function of the air temperature, but a weak function of the wind speed. The model results show that in the upwelling region near the Greenland coast, the polynya width is larger than further offshore (distance $>$ 2 Rossby radii), where it is a constant (the limiting Pease width). For a variable wind forcing, the southern ice edge of the North Water has a form that is similar to that of the wind forcing. In a channel, upwelling occurs in the eastern part and downwelling in the western part. Thus the polynya is much wider near Greenland and narrower near the Canadian Islands.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59872 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Huang, Fengting |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Meteorology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001168720, proquestno: AAIMM66518, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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