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Open ocean convection is a process in which the mesoscale ocean circulation and large, strong winds mix layers of water at different depths. Fresher water lying over the saltier or warmer over the colder leads to the stratification of water, or its separation into layers. Strong winds cause evaporation, so the ocean surface cools, weakening the ...
For example, the ocean current that brings warm water up the north Atlantic to northwest Europe also cumulatively and slowly blocks ice from forming along the seashores, which would also block ships from entering and exiting inland waterways and seaports, hence ocean currents play a decisive role in influencing the climates of regions through ...
As discussed by Henry Stommel, these flows are balanced in the region of the western boundary, where a thin fast polewards flow called a western boundary current develops. Flow in the real ocean is more complex, but the Gulf Stream, Agulhas and Kuroshio are examples of such currents. They are narrow (approximately 100 km across) and fast ...
Convection is also seen in the rising plume of hot air from fire, plate tectonics, oceanic currents (thermohaline circulation) and sea-wind formation (where upward convection is also modified by Coriolis forces). In engineering applications, convection is commonly visualized in the formation of microstructures during the cooling of molten ...
Buoyancy-forced downwelling, often termed convection, is the deepening of a water parcel due to a change in the density of that parcel.Density changes in the surface ocean are primarily the result of evaporation, precipitation, heating, cooling, or the introduction and mixing of an alternate water or salinity source, such as river input or brine rejection.
A system of ocean currents that transports heat northward across the North Atlantic could collapse by mid-century, according to a new study, and scientists have said before that such a collapse ...
However, wind and tides cause mixing between these water layers, with diapycnal mixing caused by tidal currents being one example. [14] This mixing is what enables the convection between ocean layers, and thus, deep water currents. [1] In the 1920s, Sandström's framework was expanded by accounting for the role of salinity in ocean layer ...
The two currents don’t change directions, but they shift their paths on occasion, forecasters said. The Gulf Stream is also known to speed up and slow down. Impacts on the N.C. coast can include ...