Wind Currents
Wind Currents
currents of the surface waters of oceans and seas resulting from the action of wind on the surface of the water: Wind currents arise owing to the combined influence of the forces of friction, turbulent viscosity, pressure gradient, deflecting force of the earth’s rotation, and so on. The wind component of these currents, without taking the pressure gradient into account, is called the drift current. Powerful wind currents arise under conditions of winds blowing constantly in the same direction—for example, the North and South trade winds and the westerlies. The theory of wind currents was developed by the Swedish scientist W. Ekman, the Russian scientists V. B. Shtokman and N. S. Lineikin, and the American H. Stommel.