The effects of winds over a barotropic retrograde slope current

A barotropic, retrograde slope jet, with its cyclonic flank up-slope, is subjected to persistent head winds or tail winds, or variable winds associated with the passage of swiftly moving cyclones. A head wind pushes the current jet up-slope and increases its speed against the wind. Likewise, a tail wind reduces its speed. Cyclones leave a trail of inertial oscillations over a deep, quiescent ocean, but when they pass over a retrograde slope current, the inertial oscillations are dispersed, and they excite topographic Rossby waves which propagate upstream. Using an example from the Barents Sea, it is shown numerically that a head wind can intensify the slope current more than 30% and a typical Polar low can excite significant topographic Rossby waves with a period of 36 hours.