On the Interpretation of Ocean Current Spectra, Part II: Testing Dynamical Hypotheses

Abstract

Three examples are chosen to illustrate how the several spectrum representations in Part 1 can be used to test whether a proposed dynamical mechanism is supported by a given set of observations. The examples are wind-forced surface currents, internal waves and bottom-trapped Rossby waves. Dynamical tests are formulated in the Cartesian, rotary, rotational invariant, hadograph and pre-specified spectrum representations. The limitations and prospects for applying these techniques to more complicated circumstances are discussed.