TY  - JOUR
N2  - A one-parameter family of exact solutions describing the bifurcation of a steady two-dimensional current with uniform vorticity near a gap in a thin barrier is found. The unsteady evolution of source-driven flows toward these steady states is studied using a version of contour dynamics, appropriately modified to take into account the presence of a barrier with a single gap. It is shown that some of the steady solutions are realizable as large-time limits of the source-driven flows, although some are not owing to persistent eddy-shedding events in the vicinity of the gap. For the special case when there is zero net flux through the gap, numerical experiments show that the through-gap flux of vortical fluid increases with the width of the gap and that this flux approaches a steady limit with time.
VL  - 39
ID  - discovery96866
N1  - © Copyright 2009 American Meteorological Society
SN  - 0022-3670
EP  -  2674
JF  - Journal of Physical Oceanography
AV  - public
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2009JPO4191.1
SP  - 2665 
KW  - WESTERN BOUNDARY CURRENT
KW  -  POTENTIAL VORTICITY
KW  -  COASTAL CURRENTS
KW  -  UNIMAK PASS
KW  -  FLOW
KW  -  DYNAMICS
KW  -  MOTION
KW  -  VORTEX
KW  -  TOPOGRAPHY
KW  -  BARRIERS
TI  - Gap-Leaping Vortical Currents
IS  - 10
PB  - AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC
A1  - McDonald, NR
A1  - Johnson, ER
Y1  - 2009/10//
ER  -