Sverdrup balance applies to a steady, large-scale, small-Rossby number, hydrostatic and nearly geostrophic ocean interior on a beta plane. The flow is depth-integrated, relative-vorticity advection and interior friction are negligible, density is treated as constant for the barotropic balance, and the principal vorticity source is the curl of wind stress. The balancesays that wind input of vertical vorticity is balanced by meridional advection of planetary vorticity, or equivalently by the stretching needed to conserve potential vorticity as parcels move across latitude circles.
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