Numerical Studies of Oceanic Processes.

The three tasks undertaken during the final portion of this grant are the modeling of frontal instabilities, coastal flows generated by river outflow, and Indian Ocean physics and biology. Two papers have been published on frontal instabilities. In Fukamachi, McCreary and Proehl 1995, JGR we examined the dynamics of the small scale frontal instabilities, finding that they are primarily ageostrophic baroclinic instabilities AGBIs. In Yu, McCreary and Proehl 1995, JPO we argued that tropical instability waves TIWs resulted primarily from AOBIs. A remarkable aspect of most of our river solutions is that the outflow bends to the left as it emerges form the river mouth, instead of bending to the right as in the typical case a paper describing this research McCreary, Zhang and Shetye, 1996, JPO is currently under review. In the field of Indian Ocean research, we developed a coupled physicalbiological model that can simulate remarkably well the annual variability of both physical and biological variables in the Arabian Sea, and a paper describing this research is in press McCreary, Kohler, Hood and Olson, 1996, Prog. Oceanogr.. We also examined the causes of the annual variability of the East India Coastal Current in two papers Shankar, McCreary, Han and Shetye 1996, JGR, and McCreary, Han, Shankar and Shetye 1996, JGR.