The Wind-Induced Drift Velocity of the Freshwater Layer
on the Seas Surface

N. V. Zhurbas^{a, b}

^a Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Nakhimovsky 36, Moscow, 117997 Russia

^b Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, per. Institutsky 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, 141700 Russia

e-mail: nataxa87@mail.ru

Received February 1, 2012; in final form, June 7, 2012

Abstract—The effect of an unsteady river plume on the wind drift was studied. Initially, the plume occurs as
a horizontal homogeneous near-surface layer with a low density and different thicknesses being washed around
by the wind in the course of time due to the vertical mixing with the underlying waters. This process is described
using the one-dimensional Princeton Ocean Model (POM) with the integrated turbulence submodel. A series of
numerical experiments yielded the empirical dependence of the normalized surface drift velocity modulus on
the nondimensional parameters: the Ekman numbers and the relations between the buoyancy and Coriolis
forces.

DOI: 10.1134/S0001437013020161

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