Reference no: EM133029190
Question - Suppose you deploy a drifter in the middle of Juan de Fuca Strait, off Victoria. Your drifter has an initial constant speed through the water of 0.5 m/s, but has no motor to adjust its direction or speed. There is a constant mean flow of 0.5 m/s to the west (so the drifter's initial velocity is equal to and caused by the mean flow speed).
Assume there are no other currents, viscous and Reynolds stresses are negligible, there are no horizontal pressure gradients, and the strait has a constant width of 40 km.
a) List the dominant forces in this problem.
b) Write down the three components of the momentum equation for the drifter's motion, including the relevant terms only. You can treat the drifter as a neutrally-buoyant fluid parcel (as if it has same constant density 1023 kg/m3 as the water).
c) Calculate the Rossby number for the drifter's initial motion. Will rotation be important?
d) Assume you are on an f-plane, at a latitude of 48.3oN and neglect any vertical velocity. The along-Strait direction is roughly Eastward. Would the drifter reach the open Pacific, 90 km to the West of your deployment site or hit the sides of the Strait? If it reaches the ocean, roughly how long does that take? You will need to solve a system of two simple ordinary differential equations and then look up the parametric equations for a circle. Show all your calculations.