A Survey of the Stress between the Ocean and Atmosphere

Abstract

A survey is made of the mean east-west component of stress between the ocean and atmosphere for each season and each ocean, and for the mean of all oceans. The averaging is carried out for each 5" latitude zone from 55 °N. to 55 °S. The results provide a first approximation to the total torque about the Earth's axis, on the atmosphere as a whole, in the various latitude belts. From them is derived a table showing the distribution of total northward flux of atmospheric angular momentum for the annual mean and the four seasons individually, allowing for the changes occurring during spring and autumn. A brief comparative discussion of both the stress and flux results is given.