Sketch of the circulation in a front. The black contours indicate surfaces
of constant property values; to take an example, in a temperature front
the contours would be isotherms, cold would be purple, warm would be
gold. Water movement is towards the front at the surface, producing a
convergence into the front. It can be seen that water moves across the
contours (eg isotherms), so strong mixing, indicated by yellow arrows,
must occur in the front.The frontal zone is the region of rapid property (eg temperature) change at the surface. The frontal axis is the location of the largest horizontal property (eg temperature) gradient.
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