An ocean gyre is a basin-scale rotating circulation driven principally by wind stress and shaped by planetary rotation and boundaries.
Sverdrup balance equates meridional advection of planetary vorticity to wind-stress curl in the weakly frictional ocean interior.
A western boundary current is a narrow, intense return flow that closes a broad wind-driven interior circulation. The beta effect selects the western side for this frictional boundary layer.
The Stommel boundary layer closes a Sverdrup interior using linear drag. Balancing beta-effect advection against drag gives width
for the normalization in which quasi-geostrophic drag is .

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An ocean gyre is a large system of circulating ocean currents, primarily driven by the Earth's wind patterns and the Coriolis effect. Gyres are organized into large, circular patterns in the oceans and typically occur in each of the world's major oceans. They play a crucial role in regulating the climate and temperature of ocean waters and can significantly influence weather patterns. There are five major gyres in the world’s oceans: 1. **North Atlantic Gyre** 2.