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Oceanic eddies are also usually made of water masses that are different from those outside the eddy. That is, the water within an eddy usually has different temperature and salinity characteristics to the water outside the eddy. There is a direct link between the water mass properties of an eddy and its rotation.
Eddy pumping is a component of mesoscale eddy-induced vertical motion. Such vertical motion is caused by the deformation of the pycnocline. It can be conceptualised by assuming that ocean water has a density surface with mean depth averaged over time and space.
Graph showing ocean temperature versus depth on the vertical axis. The graph shows several thermoclines (or thermal layers) based on seasons and latitude. The temperature at zero depth is the sea surface temperature. The ocean temperature plays a crucial role in the global climate system, ocean currents and for marine habitats.
Eddy saturation and eddy compensation are phenomena found in the Southern Ocean. Both are limiting processes where eddy activity increases due to the momentum of strong westerlies , and hence do not enhance their respective mean currents.
A thermocline (also known as the thermal layer or the metalimnion in lakes) is a distinct layer based on temperature within a large body of fluid (e.g. water, as in an ocean or lake; or air, e.g. an atmosphere) with a high gradient of distinct temperature differences associated with depth.
A related feature is an area of warm water with an "eddy" or "Loop Current ring" that separates from the Loop Current, somewhat randomly every 3 to 17 months. [4] Swirling at 1.8 to 2 meters/second, these rings drift to the west at speeds of 2 to 5 kilometers/day and have a lifespan of up to a year before they bump into the coast of Texas or ...
T-S diagram of a station in the North Pacific. In oceanography, temperature-salinity diagrams, sometimes called T-S diagrams, are used to identify water masses.In a T-S diagram, rather than plotting each water property as a separate "profile," with pressure or depth as the vertical coordinate, potential temperature (on the vertical axis) is plotted versus salinity (on the horizontal axis).
An idealized eddy in the Gulf of Alaska. "Isotherms" are lines connecting points of equal temperature. Warm, nutrient-rich coastal water spirals clockwise, forming the core of the eddy. Phytoplankton are concentrated in the edges of the eddy near the ocean surface, nourished by the nutrient-rich eddy water.