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The thermohaline circulation is sometimes called the ocean conveyor belt, the great ocean conveyor, or the global conveyor belt, coined by climate scientist Wallace Smith Broecker. [5] [6] It is also referred to as the meridional overturning circulation, or MOC. This name is used because not every circulation pattern caused by temperature and ...
AMOC in relation to the global thermohaline circulation . The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is the main current system in the Atlantic Ocean, [1]: 2238 and is also part of the global thermohaline circulation, which connects the world's oceans with a single "conveyor belt" of continuous water exchange. [18]
Ocean currents flow for great distances and together they create the global conveyor belt, which plays a dominant role in determining the climate of many of Earth's regions. More specifically, ocean currents influence the temperature of the regions through which they travel.
The animation also shows another feature of the global ocean circulation: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The region around latitude 60 south is the the only part of the Earth where the ocean can flow all the way around the world with no land in the way. As a result, both the surface and deep waters flow from west to east around Antarctica.
The South Pacific Gyre, like its northern counterpart, is one of the largest ecosystems on Earth with an area that accounts for around 10% of the global ocean surface area. [20] Within this massive area is Point Nemo, the location on Earth that is farthest away from all continental landmass (2,688 km away from the closest land). [21]
The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF; Indonesian: Arus Lintas Indonesia) is an ocean current with importance for global climate as is the low-latitude movement of warm, relative freshwater from the north Pacific to the Indian Ocean. It thus serves as a main upper branch of the global heat/salt conveyor belt.
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The circumpolar current is driven by the strong westerly winds in the latitudes of the Southern Ocean. The ACC (red circle near the middle of the image) in relation to the global thermohaline circulation. In latitudes where there are continents, winds blowing on light surface water can simply pile up light water against these continents.