A finite element model for the ocean circulation driven by wind and atmospheric heat flux

A finite element model for solving ocean circulation forced by winds and atmospheric heat fluxes is presented. It is vertically integrated 1 1/2 layer model which solves the motion and continuity hydrodynamic equations coupled with the advection-diffusion transport equation for temperature. A space-time Petrov-Galerkin formulation is used to minimize the undesirable numerical spurious oscillation effects of unresolved boundary layers solution of classical Galerkin method. The model is employed to simulate the circulation of the eastern South Pacific Ocean represented by a mesh covering the are...