Effects of Multiple Connectivity on a Finite-Element Barotropic Model

Abstract

A finite-element model recently designed for calculation of oceanic normal modes is amended here with a prescription for the proper treatment of multiple connectivity, the main effects of which are likely to be located in the Southern Ocean. For this purpose line bases, as well as point bases, are needed in the finite-element representations of volume-flux and energy-flux streamfunctions. The dynamical conditions that should be met by the circulation of velocity and energy on each boundary are found to arise as natural boundary conditions for the finite-element equations.