Bifurcating periodic solutions of wind-driven circulation equations

The existence of bifurcating periodic flows in a quasi-geostrophic mathematical model of winddriven circulation is investigated. In the model, the Ekman number r and Reynolds number R control the stability of the motion of the fluid. Through rigorous analysis it is proved that when the basic steady-state solution is independent of the Ekman number, then a spectral simplicity condition is sufficient to ensure the existence of periodic solutions branching off the basic steady-state solution as the Ekman number varies across its critical value for constant Reynolds number. When the basic solution is a function of Ekman number, an additional condition is required to ensure periodic solutions.  2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved