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Open ocean convection is a process in which the mesoscale ocean circulation and large, strong winds mix layers of water at different depths. Fresher water lying over the saltier or warmer over the colder leads to the stratification of water, or its separation into layers. Strong winds cause evaporation, so the ocean surface cools, weakening the ...
But, for example, in the world's oceans it also occurs due to salt water being heavier than fresh water, so a layer of salt water on top of a layer of fresher water will also cause convection. Natural convection has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers because of its presence both in nature and engineering applications.
Stratified layers are a barrier to the mixing of water, which impacts the exchange of heat, carbon, oxygen and other nutrients. [1] The surface mixed layer is the uppermost layer in the ocean and is well mixed by mechanical (wind) and thermal (convection) effects. Climate change is causing the upper ocean stratification to increase.
Above the barrier layer, the well mixed layer may be due to local precipitation exceeding evaporation (e.g. in the western Pacific), monsoon related river runoff (e.g. in the northern Indian Ocean), or advection of salty water subducted in the subtropics (found in all subtropical ocean gyres). Barrier layer formation in the subtropics is ...
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.
When this water reaches the North Atlantic, it cools and sinks through convection, due to its decreased temperature and increased salinity resulting in increased density. NADW is the outflow of this thick deep layer, which can be detected by its high salinity, high oxygen content, nutrient minima, high 14 C/ 12 C, [1] and chlorofluorocarbons ...
In fluid dynamics, convective mixing is the vertical transport of a fluid and its properties. In many important ocean and atmospheric phenomena, convection is driven by density differences in the fluid, e.g. the sinking of cold, dense water in polar regions of the world's oceans; and the rising of warm, less-dense air during the formation of cumulonimbus clouds and hurricanes.
The atmosphere is heated from below, which leads to convection, the largest expression of which is the Hadley circulation. By contrast the ocean is heated from above, which tends to suppress convection. Instead ocean deep water is formed in polar regions where cold salty waters sink in fairly restricted areas.