Continuous representation of wind stress and wind stress curl over the world ocean

A continuous wind stress distribution over the world oceans is derived by fitting a spline function representation to the values of the wind stress given by Hellerman (1968) for each season and for the annual mean. The derived wind stress is then used to obtain a representation for the curl of the wind stress over the same region, and steady-state, Sverdrup transport calculations are calculated from the curl for each set of data. The derived transports for the western boundary currents do not agree with observed estimates. They are generally too small in the Northern Hemisphere and too large in the Southern Hemisphere. Possible reasons for the discrepancy are discussed.