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Ocean surface currents Distinctive white lines trace the flow of surface currents around the world. Visualization showing global ocean currents from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2012, at sea level, then at 2,000 m (6,600 ft) below sea level Animation of circulation around ice shelves of Antarctica
A summary of the path of the thermohaline circulation. Blue paths represent deep-water currents, while red paths represent surface currents. The NADW is not the deepest water layer in the Atlantic Ocean; the Antarctic bottom water (AABW) is always the densest, deepest ocean layer in any basin deeper than 4,000 metres (2.5 mi). [27]
Ocean surface topography is used to map ocean currents, which move around the ocean's "hills" and "valleys" in predictable ways.A clockwise sense of rotation is found around "hills" in the northern hemisphere and "valleys" in the southern hemisphere.
In oceanography, a gyre (/ ˈ dʒ aɪ ər /) is any large system of ocean surface currents moving in a circular fashion driven by wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determine the circulatory patterns from the wind stress curl ().
Additionally, extensive upwelling of colder sub-surface waters occurs, caused by the prevailing northwesterly winds acting through the Ekman Effect. The winds drive surface water to the right of the wind flow, that is offshore, which draws water up from below to replace it. The upwelling further cools the already cool California Current.
A geostrophic current is an oceanic current in which the pressure gradient force is balanced by the Coriolis effect. The direction of geostrophic flow is parallel to the isobars , with the high pressure to the right of the flow in the Northern Hemisphere , and the high pressure to the left in the Southern Hemisphere .
View of the currents surrounding the gyre. The North Atlantic Gyre of the Atlantic Ocean is one of five great oceanic gyres.It is a circular ocean current, with offshoot eddies and sub-gyres, across the North Atlantic from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (calms or doldrums) to the part south of Iceland, and from the east coasts of North America to the west coasts of Europe and Africa.
a variable surface height leading to horizontal pressure gradients; the Coriolis effect. In this, Stommel assumed an ocean of constant density and depth + seeing ocean currents; he also introduced a linearized, frictional term to account for the dissipative effects that prevent the real ocean from accelerating. He starts, thus, from the steady ...