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Knowledge of surface ocean currents is essential in reducing costs of shipping, since traveling with them reduces fuel costs. In the wind powered sailing-ship era, knowledge of wind patterns and ocean currents was even more essential. Using ocean currents to help their ships into harbor and using currents such as the gulf stream to get back ...
Surface temperatures in the western North Atlantic: Most of the North American landmass is black and dark blue (cold), while the Gulf Stream is red (warm). Source: NASA The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude ...
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.
The Agulhas Current flows south until it joins the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which flows east at the southern edge of the Indian Ocean Gyre. Due to the African continent not extending as far south as the Indian Ocean Gyre, some of the water in the Agulhas Current "leaks" into the Atlantic Ocean, with potentially important effects for ...
A summary of the path of the thermohaline circulation. Blue paths represent deep-water currents, while red paths represent surface currents. Thermohaline circulation. Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes.
Marine currents can carry large amounts of water, largely driven by the tides, which are a consequence of the gravitational effects of the planetary motion of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun. Augmented flow velocities can be found where the underwater topography in straits between islands and the mainland or in shallows around headlands plays a major role in enhancing the flow velocities ...
The cooler ocean current along the west coast also makes summer temperatures cooler on the west coast compared to the east coast. For example, Half Moon Bay at 37°N has an average July high temperature of 67 °F (19 °C) while Virginia Beach, VA , close to the same latitude, has high temperatures July high temperature of 89 °F (32 °C).
Within the southern hemisphere, the South Equatorial Current is the westward limb of the very large-scale subtropical gyres. These gyres are driven by the combination of trade winds in the tropics and westerly winds that are found south of about 30 degrees south , through a rather complicated process that includes western boundary current ...