The Motion of the Ocean
By: Savanna Phillips
causes of currents -
What are Gyres ? Where do they occur?
What are Gyres? Where do they occur?
What are Gyres? Where do they occur?
What are Gyres? Where do they occur?
Western ? Eastern ocean boundary currents?
Surface currents located on the western side of the subtropical gyres, so-called western boundary currents, are faster than their eastern counterparts. In fact, they are among the fastest surface currents in the ocean. One reason for the westward intensification of boundary currents has to do with the strengthening of the Coriolis effect with latitude. The Coriolis effect is stronger in the latitudes of the westerlies than in the latitudes of the trade winds. Transport of surface waters toward the western boundary of the ocean basins causes the ocean-surface slope to be steeper on the western side (versus eastern side) of a gyre (in either hemisphere). A steeper ocean-surface slope translates into a faster geostrophic flow on that side of the gyre.
Counter currents/ upwelling / downwelling?
Heat transport / climate ?
Abstract
"Increased oceanic heat transport has often been cited as a means of maintaining warm high-latitude surface temperatures in many intervals of the geologic past, including the early Eocene. Although the excess amount of oceanic heat transport required by warm high latitude sea surface temperatures can be calculated empirically, determining how additional oceanic heat transport would take place has yet to be accomplished. That the mechanisms of enhanced poleward oceanic heat transport remain undefined in paleoclimate reconstructions is an important point that is often overlooked. Using early Eocene climate as an example, we consider various ways to produce enhanced poleward heat transport and latitudinal energy redistribution of the sign and magnitude required by interpreted early Eocene conditions. Our interpolation of early Eocene paleotemperature data indicate that an ∼30% increase in poleward heat transport would be required to maintain Eocene high-latitude temperatures. This increased heat transport appears difficult to accomplish by any means of ocean circulation if we use present ocean circulation characteristics to evaluate early Eocene rates. Either oceanic processes were very different from those of the present to produce the early Eocene climate conditions or oceanic heat transport was not the primary cause of that climate. We believe that atmospheric processes, with contributions from other factors, such as clouds, were the most likely primary cause of early Eocene climate."
Studying ocean currents
"El Nino and La Nina, the warmer and colder phases of a perpetual oscillation in the surface temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean that drastically affects weather around the world, have in recent years become familiar agents of short-term climate change."