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An ocean current is generated by the forces such as breaking waves, temperature and salinity differences, wind, Coriolis effect, and tides caused by the gravitational pull of celestial bodies. In addition, the physical properties in a pycnocline driven by density gradients also affect the flows and vertical profiles in the ocean .
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 ...
Already in May 1996 Sun and Liu published a hypothesis that coupled interactions between ocean winds, the ocean surface and ocean currents can limit water temperatures in the western Pacific. [7] As part of that study, they found that increased equilibrium temperatures drive an increased temperature gradient between the eastern and western Pacific.
Incoming tides can also produce a tidal bore along a river or narrow bay as the water flow against the current results in a wave on the surface. Tide and Current (Wyban 1992) clearly illustrates the impact of these natural cycles on the lifestyle and livelihood of Native Hawaiians tending coastal fishponds. Aia ke ola ka hana meaning . . .
Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct layers: mixed (surface) layer, upper ocean (above the thermocline), and deep ocean. Ocean dynamics has traditionally been investigated by sampling from instruments in situ. [1] The mixed layer is nearest to the surface and can vary in thickness from 10 to 500 meters.
The AMOC includes Atlantic currents at the surface and at great depths that are driven by changes in weather, temperature and salinity. Those currents comprise half of the global thermohaline circulation that includes the flow of major ocean currents, the other half being the Southern Ocean overturning circulation. [2]
A subsurface ocean current is an oceanic current that runs beneath surface currents. [1] Examples include the Equatorial Undercurrents of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, the California Undercurrent, [ 2 ] and the Agulhas Undercurrent, [ 3 ] the deep thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic, and bottom gravity currents near Antarctica.
For example, warm currents traveling along more temperate coasts increase the temperature of the area by warming the sea breezes that blow over them. Perhaps the most striking example is the Gulf Stream , which, together with its extension the North Atlantic Drift , makes northwest Europe much more temperate for its high latitude than other ...