Sea currents of the world's oceans. Warm and cold water streams. Warm and cold currents

Write down real geographical names. 2: What might the wind bring to your region? Think about the places where the wind comes from, what happens there, what lives there. Think dust, insects, tiny seeds, smoke, air masses of cooler or warmer temperatures and humidity. Be specific in your answers.

3: When the wind blows from your region, which region does it blow into? Again, write down actual place names. 4: What might the wind lead from your region? Is this the same thing that it brought? Be as specific as you can about what is being transported and where it is going.

5: What are the regions from which water flows into your region? 6: What might water contribute to your region? 7: When water flows from your region, which region does it flow into? Write down the place names again. 8: What could water from your region take away? Ocean flow, a flow consisting of horizontal and vertical components of the circulating system of waters that are generated by gravity, wind and water in different parts of the ocean. Ocean currents are similar in that they convey significant amounts from equatorial regions to the poles and thus play an important role in defining coastal regions.

In addition, ocean currents influence each other. The general circulation of the oceans determines the mean motion, which, like the atmosphere, follows a certain pattern. Superimposed on this pattern are fluctuations and, which are not considered part of the general circulation. There are also meanders and eddies that represent temporary variations in the general circulation. The ocean circulation pattern exchanges water of varying characteristics, such as salinity, within the interconnected network of oceans and is an important part of the flow of heat and freshwater resources in the global climate.

Horizontal movements are called currents, which vary from a few centimeters per second to 4 meters per second. The characteristic surface speed is from 5 to 50 cm per second. Flows generally decrease in intensity with increasing depth. Vertical movements, often called and, exhibit much lower rates of only a few meters per month. Because seawater is nearly incompressible, vertical movements are associated with regions of convergence and divergence in horizontal flow structures.

Distribution of ocean currents

Currently, this information is collected by satellites on the surface of satellites in the sea. The pattern is almost entirely related to wind circulation. In the Southern Hemisphere, counterclockwise circulation creates strong eastern boundary currents against western shores continents such as current, off and current. The currents of the Southern Hemisphere are also influenced by the powerful eastward circulating circumpolar current. This is a very deep, cold and relatively slow current, but it carries a huge mass of water, twice the volume of the Gulf Stream.

The currents of Peru and Benguela draw water from this Antarctic current and are therefore cold. The Northern Hemisphere lacks continuous open water bordering the Arctic and therefore does not have a corresponding strong circumpolar current, but there are small cold currents flowing south through the formed and Anadyr Currents off eastern Russia and western North America; others flow south around Greenland to create cold and currents.

The Pacific and Gulf Stream-North Atlantic and Norwegian currents move warmer waters through the Bering, Cape and currents. In the tropics, the great clockwise and counterclockwise flows to the west as the Pacific North and South Equatorial Currents, the Atlantic North and South Equatorial Currents and the Indian South Equatorial Currents. Due to the alternating northern monsoon climate, currents in the northern Indian Ocean and alternating. Between these massive currents are narrow countercurrents to the east.

Other smaller flowing systems found in some enclosed seas or ocean areas are less influenced by wind circulation and more dependent on the direction of water inflow. Such currents are found in the Tasmanian Sea, where a counterclockwise rotation flows south, in the northwestern part Pacific Ocean, where the easterly flow - the North Pacific flow causes a counter-clockwise circulation in and, in and in the Arabian Sea.

The deep-sea circulation consists mainly of thermohaline circulation. The currents are inferred from the distribution of seawater properties, which track the distribution of specific water masses. Density distributions are also used to estimate deep currents. Direct observations of subsurface currents are made by placing current meters from moored moorings and by installing neutral floating instruments whose drift at depth is monitored acoustically.

On a non-rotating Earth, water will be accelerated by the horizontal pressure gradient and will flow from high to. From this balance it follows that the direction of the current must be perpendicular to the pressure gradient, because the Coriolis force always acts perpendicular to the movement. In the Northern Hemisphere, this direction is such that high pressure is to the right when looking in the current direction, and in the Southern Hemisphere it is to the left. The simple equation above provides the basis for the indirect method of calculation ocean currents.

Sea surface topography also determines the geostrophic current flow path to the surface relative to the deep reference level. Hills represent high pressure and valleys represent low pressure. A clockwise rotation in the northern hemisphere with higher pressure at the center of rotation is called anticyclonic motion.

Rotating counterclockwise with lower pressure at the center is cyclonic motion. In the Southern Hemisphere, the sensation of rotation is opposite because the effect of the Coriolis force has changed its sign of deflection. The wind acts on the ocean surface proportional to the square of the wind speed and in the direction of the wind, setting the surface water in motion. Within the oceanic Ekman layer, wind stress is balanced by the Coriolis force and frictional forces. Surface water is directed at 45° to the wind, to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

This so-called may be the exception rather than the rule, since the specific conditions are not often met, although wind surface current deflection at somewhat less than 45° is observed when the wind field blows with a steady force and direction for most of the day. The average water particle in the Ekman layer moves at an angle of 90° to the wind; This is the movement to the right of the wind direction in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left of it in the Southern Hemisphere. This phenomenon is called, and its effects are widely observed in the oceans.

As the wind changes from place to place, Ekman transports, forms and disperses zones of surface water. A convergence region forces surface water down in a process called, while a divergence region pulls water from below into the surface Ekman layer in a process known as. Flooding and downdraft also occur where the wind is blowing parallel coastline. The world's major upwelling regions are located along the eastern margin of subtropical ocean waters, such as offshore Peru and northwestern Africa.

Injection in these areas cools the surface water and brings nutrient-rich nutrients into the solar layer of the ocean, resulting in a biologically productive area. Upwards and high productivity are also found along divergence zones at and around the equator. Primary areas of downdraft are found in subtropical ocean waters, e.g. North Atlantic. Such areas are devoid of nutrients and poor in marine life.

Vertical movements of ocean waters to or from the base of the Ekman layer are less than 1 meter per day, but they are important because they propagate wind effects into deeper waters. Within the upwelling region, the water column under the Ekman layer is pulled upward. This process, conserved on the rotating Earth, causes the column of water to drift toward the poles. In contrast, downward movement forces water into a column of water below the Ekman layer, causing an equatorward drift. An additional consequence of upwelling and downdraft for stratified waters is the creation of a baroclinic mass field.