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An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. [1] Depth contours, shoreline configurations, and interactions with other currents influence a current's direction and ...
Equatorial Counter Current (in black) 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.
Open ocean wind circulation can lead to gyre-like structures of piled up sea surface water resulting in horizontal gradients of sea surface height. [1] This pile up of water causes the water to have a downward flow and suction, due to gravity and mass balance. Ekman pumping downward in the central ocean is a consequence of this convergence of ...
Diel vertical migration (DVM), also known as diurnal vertical migration, is a pattern of movement used by some organisms, such as copepods, living in the ocean and in lakes. The adjective "diel" ( IPA : / ˈ d aɪ . ə l / , / ˈ d iː . əl / ) comes from Latin : diēs , lit.
The opposite is applicable when Ekman divergence is induced, leading to Ekman absorption (suction) and a subsequent, water column stretching and poleward return flow, a characteristic of sub-polar gyres. This return flow, as shown by Stommel, [1] occurs in a meridional current, concentrated near the western boundary of an ocean basin. To ...
Ocean dynamics define and describe the flow of water within the oceans. Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct layers: mixed (surface) layer, upper ocean (above the thermocline), and deep ocean. Ocean dynamics has traditionally been investigated by sampling from instruments in situ. [1]
It can be further simplified by realizing that, in basin-scale ocean gyres, the relative vorticity is small, meaning that local changes in vorticity cannot account for the decrease in . [5] Thus, the water parcel must change its planetary vorticity accordingly. The only way to decrease the planetary vorticity is by moving the water parcel ...
The permanent thermocline coincides with a change in water density between the warmer, low-density surface waters and the underlying cold dense bottom waters. The region of rapid density change is known as the pycnocline, and it acts as a barrier to vertical water circulation; thus it also affects the vertical distribution of certain chemicals ...