Implications of Conservation Equations for the Determination of Absolute Velocities

The consequences of assuming that density is conserved in the problem of determining absolute velocities are investigates. Two questions are considered: (i) the constraints that the density must satisfy to be compatible with assumed geostrophic and hydrostatic dynamics and (ii) whether and to what extent the indeterminacy in this dynamics is removed by this additional assumption. With the dawn of ocean forecasting approaching, the need to know velocity fields for use as initial conditions in a prediction scheme is keenly felt. but direct velocity measurements are still difficult to make, and so we are forced to rely on the classical procedure which consists of inferring the velocity fields from temperature and salinity measurements. Reprints.
Published in Journal of Marine Research, v46 p701-714 1988