On the Vanishing of the Interfacial Ekman Layer
Résumé
It is shown that an interfacial Ekman layer between two water masses of different density vanishes in time for all Prandtl number 0 < Pr < \infty , demonstrating that an interfacial Ekman layer is a transient phenomena and the interface broadens in a way approaching geostrophy. For Pr = 0, undamped inertial oscillations spread away from the interface, and the case Pr 5= \infty represents the classical Ekman layer.