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Evaporation is an essential part of the water cycle. The sun (solar energy) drives evaporation of water from oceans, lakes, moisture in the soil, and other sources of water. In hydrology, evaporation and transpiration (which involves evaporation within plant stomata) are collectively termed evapotranspiration. Evaporation of water occurs when ...
The processes that drive these movements are evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, sublimation, infiltration, surface runoff, and subsurface flow. In doing so, the water goes through different forms: liquid, solid and vapor. The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle as it is the source of 86% of global evaporation. [2]
Winds drive ocean currents in the upper 100 meters of the ocean's surface. However, ocean currents also flow thousands of meters below the surface. These deep-ocean currents are driven by differences in the water's density, which is controlled by temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline). This process is known as thermohaline circulation.
At the ocean-atmosphere interface, the ocean and atmosphere exchange fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum. Heat. The important heat terms at the surface are the sensible heat flux, the latent heat flux, the incoming solar radiation and the balance of long-wave radiation. In general, the tropical oceans will tend to show a net gain of heat, and ...
The vertical heat difference consists of latent heat release, sensible heat fluxes and the net longwave thermal radiation. [10] The observed in the skin layer is positive, which corresponds to a temperature increasing with depth (Note that the z-axis points downward into the ocean). This leads to a cool skin layer as can be seen in Fig. 2.
However, at a regional scale and intraannually timescale, it can present an important determinator of ocean salinity, by adding freshwater during melting process or by rejecting salt during the freezing process. For example, over the Arctic Ocean evaporation and precipitation rates are quite low, respectively, about 5±10 cm/yr and 20±30 cm/yr ...
Record-high ocean temperatures are setting the stage for an active Atlantic hurricane season with explosive tropical development, but just one thing is missing: storms. There have been no tropical ...
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 ...