An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A kind of viscous → boundary layer in a rotating fluid system. Such a layer forms over a flat bottom that exerts a frictional → stress against the flow, bringing the velocity gradually to zero within the layer above the bottom. An Ekman layer occurs also on the fluid surface whenever there is a horizontal frictional stress, for example along ocean surface, when waters are subject to wind stress.

See also: Named for Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874-1954), Swedish oceanographer, who studied the phenomenon originally in his doctoral thesis (1902) and later developed it (1905, 1906); → layer.