Baroclinic instabilities in the ocean

ID: baroclinic-instabilities-in-the-ocean

Baroclinic instability is a phenomenon in ocean and atmospheric dynamics that occurs due to the interaction between density variations and the shear of velocity in different layers of fluid. In the ocean, baroclinic conditions exist when there is a vertical density gradient, typically due to temperature (thermocline) and salinity (halocline) differences. This gradient causes the density of seawater to vary with depth, leading to differing pressure fields at different depths.

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