Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle as it is the source of 86% of global evaporation. [2] The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. When water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment.
Stable stratification of fluids occurs when each layer is less dense than the one below it. Unstable stratification is when each layer is denser than the one below it. Buoyancy forces tend to preserve stable stratification; the higher layers float on the lower ones. In unstable stratification, on the other hand, buoyancy forces cause convection ...
The study of hydrodynamic stability aims to find out if a given flow is stable or unstable, and if so, how these instabilities will cause the development of turbulence. [1] The foundations of hydrodynamic stability, both theoretical and experimental, were laid most notably by Helmholtz , Kelvin , Rayleigh and Reynolds during the nineteenth ...
Stratification in water is the formation in a body of water of relatively distinct and stable layers by density. It occurs in all water bodies where there is stable density variation with depth. Stratification is a barrier to the vertical mixing of water, which affects the exchange of heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients. [1]
Even though approximately 70% of the Earth's surface consists of water, more than 75% of the water exchange between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere occurs over the oceans. The ocean absorbs part of the energy from sunlight as heat and is initially absorbed by the surface. [13] Eventually a part of this heat also spreads to deeper water.
A biogeochemical cycle, or more generally a cycle of matter, [1] is the movement and transformation of chemical elements and compounds between living organisms, the atmosphere, and the Earth's crust. Major biogeochemical cycles include the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle. In each cycle, the chemical element or molecule is ...
Triple points mark conditions at which three different phases can coexist. For example, the water phase diagram has a triple point corresponding to the single temperature and pressure at which solid, liquid, and gaseous water can coexist in a stable equilibrium (273.16 K and a partial vapor pressure of 611.657 Pa).
The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment uses the following quantities in order to compare data quality from different satellites in order to establish a reliable quantification of the properties of the clouds: [35] the cloud cover or cloud amount with values between 0 and 1; the cloud temperature at cloud top ranging from 150 to 340 K