Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A 1943 map of the world's ocean currents. Currents of the Arctic Ocean. Baffin Island Current – Arctic Ocean current; Beaufort Gyre – Wind-driven ocean current in the Arctic Ocean polar region; East Greenland Current – Current from Fram Strait to Cape Farewell off the eastern coat of Greenland
An alternative name for the ACC is the West Wind Drift. The ACC is the dominant circulation feature of the Southern Ocean and has a mean transport estimated at 100–150 Sverdrups (Sv, million m 3 /s), [ 1 ] or possibly even higher, [ 2 ] making it the largest ocean current.
These wind patterns result in a wind stress curl that drives Ekman pumping in the subtropics (resulting in downwelling) and Ekman suction in subpolar regions (resulting in upwelling). [3] Ekman pumping results in an increased sea surface height at the center of the gyre and anticyclonic geostrophic currents in subtropical gyres. [3]
In meteorology, prevailing wind in a region of the Earth's surface is a surface wind that blows predominantly from a particular direction. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on the Earth's surface at any given time.
The winds that flow to the west (from the east, easterly wind) at the ground level in the Hadley cell are called the trade winds. Though the Hadley cell is described as located at the equator, it shifts northerly (to higher latitudes) in June and July and southerly (toward lower latitudes) in December and January, as a result of the Sun's ...
Temperature differences can cause air currents because warmer air is less dense than cooler air, causing the warmer air to appear "lighter." Thus, if the warm air is under the cool air, air currents will form as they exchange places. Air currents are caused because of the uneven heating of Earth's surface. [5] [6]
Knowing the wind sampling average is important, as the value of a one-minute sustained wind is typically 14% greater than a ten-minute sustained wind. [16] A short burst of high speed wind is termed a wind gust ; one technical definition of a wind gust is: the maxima that exceed the lowest wind speed measured during a ten-minute time interval ...
The Equatorial Counter Current is an eastward flowing, wind-driven current which extends to depths of 100–150 metres (330–490 ft) in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. More often called the North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC) , this current flows west-to-east at about 3-10°N in the Atlantic , Indian Ocean and Pacific basins ...