text: The equations and assumptions above are not representative for the actual observations of the Ekman spiral. The differences between the theory and the observations are that the angle is between 5–20 degrees instead of the 45 degrees as expected and that the Ekman layer depth and thus the Ekman spiral is less deep than expected. There are three main factors which contribute to the reason why this is, stratification, turbulence and horizontal gradients. Other less important factors which play a role in this are the Stokes drift, waves and the Stokes-Coriolis force.