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Buoyancy-forced downwelling, often termed convection, is the deepening of a water parcel due to a change in the density of that parcel.Density changes in the surface ocean are primarily the result of evaporation, precipitation, heating, cooling, or the introduction and mixing of an alternate water or salinity source, such as river input or brine rejection.
Mode-water eddies have a complex density structure. Due to their shape, they cannot be distinguished from regular anticyclones in an eddy-centric (focused on the core of the eddy) analysis based on sea level height. Nonetheless, eddy pumping induced vertical motion in the euphotic zone of mode-water eddies is comparable to cyclones.
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 ...
The three main drivers that work together to cause upwelling are wind, Coriolis effect, and Ekman transport. They operate differently for different types of upwelling, but the general effects are the same. [6] In the overall process of upwelling, winds blow across the sea surface at a particular direction, which causes a wind-water interaction.
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 ...
The "typical" Caribbean surface water is a mixture of North Atlantic Surface Water (NASW) and riverine waters from the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. The intensity of the Caribbean low-level jet (further explanation below) and the coastal orientation are determining the timing and spatial variability of this upwelling system. The system is likely ...
In most humid subtropical climates, summer is the wettest season. In summer, the subtropical high pressure cells provide a sultry southernly flow of tropical air with high dew points, and frequent (but brief) convective showers are common.
The temperature range of the sinking North Pacific Subtropical Mode Waters characteristically falls between 16 °C and 19 °C, however exact temperatures and depths to which these waters sink varies annually depending on the efficiency of water transportation by the extension, which is a function of atmospheric and mesoscale eddy conditions. [56]