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The Indian Ocean Gyre, located in the Indian Ocean, is, like the South Atlantic Gyre, bordered by the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the north and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to the south. The South Equatorial Current forms the northern boundary of the Indian Ocean Gyre as it flows west along the equator towards the east coast of Africa.
Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes. [1] [2] The adjective thermohaline derives from thermo-referring to temperature and -haline referring to salt content, factors which together determine the density of sea water.
Circulation within the Pacific Ocean is largely influenced by this northerly transport of warm salty water north along the Western boundary, concurrently providing structure to the western edge of the North Pacific Gyre. [54] The resulting heat fluxes in this area represent some of the largest heat exchanges from ocean to atmosphere within the ...
The oceanic regions within the South Pacific Gyre (SPG), and other subtropical gyres, are characterized by low primary productivity in the surface ocean; i.e. they are oligotrophic. The center of the SPG is the furthest oceanic province from a continent and contains the clearest ocean water on Earth [2] with ≥ 0.14 mg chlorophyll per m 3. [2]
However, ocean currents also flow thousands of meters below the surface. These deep-ocean currents are driven by differences in the water's density, which is controlled by temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline). This process is known as thermohaline circulation. In the Earth's polar regions ocean water gets very cold, forming sea ice.
Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of the Earth. The Earth's atmospheric circulation varies from year to year, but the large-scale structure of its circulation remains fairly constant.
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Integrating the areal density of a change in enthalpic energy over an ocean basin or entire ocean gives the total ocean heat uptake. [21] Between 1971 and 2018, the rise in ocean heat content accounted for over 90% of Earth's excess energy from global heating. [22] [23] The main driver of this increase was caused by humans via their rising ...