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The largest ocean current is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), a wind-driven current which flows clockwise uninterrupted around Antarctica. The ACC connects all the ocean basins together, and also provides a link between the atmosphere and the deep ocean due to the way water upwells and downwells on either side of it.
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 ...
Driven by this sinking and the upwelling that occurs in lower latitudes, as well as the driving force of the winds on surface water, the ocean currents act to circulate water throughout the sea. When global warming is factored in, changes occur, particularly in areas where deep water is formed. [50]
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]
This decoupling can cause de-oxygenation in the deeper ocean as well, since the decoupling makes it less likely for the oxygen to reach the deeper oceans. Nevertheless, the change in oxygen concentration can also be influenced by changes in circulation and winds.
A Wind generated current is a flow in a body of water that is generated by wind friction on its surface. Wind can generate surface currents on water bodies of any size. The depth and strength of the current depend on the wind strength and duration, and on friction and viscosity losses, [1] but are limited to about 400 m depth by the mechanism, and to lesser depths where the water is shallower. [2]
The surface currents are initially dictated by surface wind conditions. The trade winds blow westward in the tropics, [22] and the westerlies blow eastward at mid-latitudes. [23] This wind pattern applies a stress to the subtropical ocean surface with negative curl across the Northern Hemisphere, [24] and the reverse across the Southern Hemisphere.
This is one of the causes of the internal variability of ocean flows as these changes in the wind forcing cause changes in the wave field and the thereby generated currents. Variability of ocean flows also occurs because the changes of the wind forcing are disturbances of the mean ocean flow, which leads to instabilities.