Wind current. Theory of wind currents. Warm katabatic current on the map

“There is a river in the ocean. It does not dry out even during the most severe droughts and does not overflow its banks during the largest floods. Its banks and bed are made of cold water, and its rapids are made of warm water.”. So in the middle of the 19th century. American scientist M. F. Mori wrote about the world’s most powerful warm ocean current Gulf Stream .

Ocean currents - horizontal movements of huge masses of water in a certain direction over long distances.

More often ocean currents arise under the influence of constant winds. Such currents are called winds. On both sides of the equator from the 30th latitude, constant trade winds blow in its direction, arising in the equatorial zone of all oceans. The currents caused by these winds are called trade winds(Fig. 80). Moving from east to west, trade wind currents, encountering the shores of continents, deviate to the north and south, and new currents are formed, called stock.

In temperate latitudes, these currents, under the influence of constant westerly winds and the force of the Earth's rotation, deviate to the east and are directed to the western shores of the continents. Then they return to 30 latitudes again as katabatic currents. So, north and south of the equator in zones 50 s. w. and 50° S. w. Two cycles of ocean water arise. In the Northern Hemisphere, currents move clockwise, in the Southern Hemisphere - vice versa. In the Northern Hemisphere, along the coast of Antarctica, under the influence of constant winds of moderate latitudes and the force of the Earth’s rotation, a powerful current of the Western Winds(Fig. 82). The name itself speaks about the reasons for its formation.

Distinguish warm And cold currents. If the temperature of the current water is higher than the temperature of the surrounding ocean waters, then it is considered warm, if below - cold. On maps, warm currents are indicated by red arrows, cold currents by blue arrows. Currents in the oceans significantly influence the climate and weather of the coastal parts of the continents. Cold ones reduce the temperature and amount of precipitation, while warm ones, on the contrary, increase it.

In shipping, it is important to take into account the strength and direction of currents. In the past they were used as "bottle mail". Material from the site

Rice. 82. Current of the Western Winds

• Sea currents arise mainly under the influence of constant winds: trade winds and western temperate latitudes. They form two gyres in the World Ocean between 50 latitudes: in the Northern Hemisphere, the currents move clockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere, vice versa.
• Currents are divided into cold and warm. On maps, warm currents are indicated by red arrows, cold currents by blue arrows.
• Currents influence the climate and weather of the coastal parts of the continents.

On this page there is material on the following topics:

• World map with currents warm red cold blue

• Warm katabatic current on the map

• Message on the topic of the cold current of the westerly winds

• California current wind or katabatic

• Abstract on the topic of warm and cold flows

Questions about this material:

Mariners learned about the presence of ocean currents almost as soon as they began to plow the waters of the World Ocean. True, the public paid attention to them only when, thanks to the movement of ocean waters, many great geographical discoveries were made, for example, Christopher Columbus sailed to America thanks to the North Equatorial Current. After this, not only sailors, but also scientists began to pay close attention to ocean currents and strive to study them as best and deeply as possible.

Already in the second half of the 18th century. the sailors studied the Gulf Stream quite well and successfully applied the acquired knowledge in practice: from America to Great Britain they walked with the current, and in the opposite direction they kept a certain distance. This allowed them to stay two weeks ahead of ships whose captains were not familiar with the area.

Ocean or sea currents are large-scale movements of water masses in the World Ocean at speeds from 1 to 9 km/h. These streams do not move chaotically, but in a certain channel and direction, which is the main reason why they are sometimes called rivers of the oceans: the width of the largest currents can be several hundred kilometers, and the length can reach several thousand.

It has been established that water flows do not move straight, but deviate slightly to the side and are subject to the Coriolis force. In the Northern Hemisphere they almost always move clockwise, in the Southern Hemisphere it’s the other way around.. At the same time, currents located in tropical latitudes (they are called equatorial or trade winds) move mainly from east to west. The strongest currents were recorded along the eastern coasts of the continents.

Water flows do not circulate on their own, but are set in motion by a sufficient number of factors - wind, rotation of the planet around its axis, gravitational fields of the Earth and Moon, bottom topography, outlines of continents and islands, differences in temperature indicators of water, its density, depth in different places in the ocean and even its physical and chemical composition.

Of all types of water flows, the most pronounced are the surface currents of the World Ocean, the depth of which is often several hundred meters. Their occurrence was influenced by trade winds constantly moving in tropical latitudes in a west-east direction. These trade winds form the huge flows of the North and South Equatorial Currents near the equator. A smaller part of these flows returns to the east, forming a countercurrent (when the movement of water occurs in the opposite direction from the movement of air masses). Most of them, when colliding with continents and islands, turn to the north or south.

Warm and cold water currents

It must be taken into account that the concepts of “cold” or “warm” currents are conditional definitions. So, despite the fact that the temperature of the water flows of the Benguela Current, which flows along the Cape of Good Hope, is 20°C, it is considered cold. But the North Cape Current, which is one of the branches of the Gulf Stream, with temperatures from 4 to 6 ° C, is warm.

This happens because cold, warm and neutral currents got their names based on a comparison of the temperature of their water with the temperature of the surrounding ocean:

• If the temperature indicators of the water flow coincide with the temperature of the surrounding waters, such a flow is called neutral;
• If the temperature of the currents is lower than the surrounding water, they are called cold. They usually flow from high latitudes to low latitudes (for example, the Labrador Current), or from areas where, due to high river flows, ocean water has a reduced salinity of surface waters;
• If the temperature of the currents is warmer than the surrounding water, then they are called warm. They move from tropical to subpolar latitudes, for example, the Gulf Stream.

Main water flows

At the moment, scientists have recorded about fifteen major oceanic water flows in the Pacific, fourteen in the Atlantic, seven in the Indian and four in the Arctic Ocean.

It is interesting that all currents of the Arctic Ocean move at the same speed - 50 cm/sec, three of them, namely the West Greenland, West Spitsbergen and Norwegian, are warm, and only the East Greenland is a cold current.

But almost all oceanic currents of the Indian Ocean are warm or neutral, with the Monsoon, Somali, Western Australian and Cape Agulhas current (cold) moving at a speed of 70 cm/sec, the speed of the rest varies from 25 to 75 cm/sec. The water flows of this ocean are interesting because, together with the seasonal monsoon winds, which change their direction twice a year, the oceanic rivers also change their course: in winter they mainly flow to the west, in summer - to the east (a phenomenon characteristic only of the Indian Ocean ).

Since the Atlantic Ocean stretches from north to south, its currents also have a meridional direction. Water flows located in the north move clockwise, in the south - counterclockwise.

A striking example of the flow of the Atlantic Ocean is the Gulf Stream, which, starting in the Caribbean Sea, carries warm waters to the north, breaking up into several side streams along the way. When the waters of the Gulf Stream find themselves in the Barents Sea, they enter the Arctic Ocean, where they cool and turn south in the form of the cold Greenland Current, after which at some stage they deviate to the west and again join the Gulf Stream, forming a vicious circle.

The currents of the Pacific Ocean are mainly in a latitudinal direction and form two huge circles: northern and southern. Since the Pacific Ocean is extremely large, it is not surprising that its water flows have a significant impact on much of our planet.

For example, trade wind water currents transport warm waters from the western tropical coasts to the eastern ones, which is why in the tropical zone the western part of the Pacific Ocean is much warmer than the opposite side. But in the temperate latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, on the contrary, the temperature is higher in the east.

Deep Currents

For quite a long time, scientists believed that deep ocean waters were almost motionless. But soon special underwater vehicles discovered both slow and fast-flowing water streams at great depths.

For example, under the Equatorial Current of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of about one hundred meters, scientists have identified the underwater Cromwell Current, moving eastward at a speed of 112 km/day.

Soviet scientists found a similar movement of water flows, but in the Atlantic Ocean: the width of the Lomonosov Current is about 322 km, and the maximum speed of 90 km/day was recorded at a depth of about one hundred meters. After this, another underwater flow was discovered in the Indian Ocean, although its speed turned out to be much lower - about 45 km/day.

The discovery of these currents in the ocean gave rise to new theories and mysteries, the main one of which is the question of why they appeared, how they were formed, and whether the entire area of ​​the ocean is covered by currents or there is a point where the water is still.

The influence of the ocean on the life of the planet

The role of ocean currents in the life of our planet can hardly be overestimated, since the movement of water flows directly affects the planet’s climate, weather, and marine organisms. Many compare the ocean to a huge heat engine driven by solar energy. This machine creates a constant exchange of water between the surface and deep layers of the ocean, providing it with oxygen dissolved in the water and influencing the life of marine inhabitants.

This process can be traced, for example, by considering the Peruvian Current, which is located in the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to the rise of deep waters, which lift phosphorus and nitrogen upward, animal and plant plankton successfully develop on the ocean surface, resulting in the organization of a food chain. Plankton is eaten by small fish, which, in turn, become prey to larger fish, birds, and marine mammals, which, given such food abundance, settle here, making the region one of the most highly productive areas of the World Ocean.

It also happens that a cold current becomes warm: the average ambient temperature rises by several degrees, causing warm tropical showers to fall on the ground, which, once in the ocean, kill fish accustomed to cold temperatures. The result is disastrous - a huge amount of dead small fish ends up in the ocean, large fish leave, fishing stops, birds leave their nesting places. As a result, the local population is deprived of fish, crops destroyed by heavy rains, and profits from the sale of guano (bird droppings) as fertilizer. It can often take several years to restore the previous ecosystem.

currents of surface waters of oceans and seas resulting from the action of wind on the water surface. The development of wind flow occurs under the combined influence of friction forces, turbulent viscosity, pressure gradient, deflecting force of the Earth's rotation, etc. The wind component of these currents, without taking into account the pressure gradient, is called a drift current. Under conditions of winds that are stable in direction, powerful currents of wind flow develop, such as the Northern and Southern Trade Winds, the current of the Western Winds, etc. The theory of wind flow was developed by the Swede V. Ekman, the Russian scientists V. B. Shtokman and N. S. Lineikin, American G. Stoml.

• - see Air currents...

  Dictionary of winds

• - waves raised by the wind on the surface of a reservoir or sea: ripples, two-dimensional waves, crush, swell, dead swell, etc. The ratio of the speed of waves to the speed of the wind that caused them is about 0.8, the wave period is up to 10 -16 s,...

  Dictionary of winds

• - air currents, atmospheric currents - wind systems over a large area and in a significant thickness of the atmosphere, possessing a certain stability in time and space...

  Dictionary of winds

• - wind currents, temporary, periodic or permanent, arising on the surface of the water under the influence of wind. They deviate from the wind direction in the northern hemisphere to the right at an angle of 30-45°...

  Dictionary of winds

• - connections located at the level of the upper and lower chords of the main trusses of the span...

  Construction dictionary

• - deep currents is a generalized name for currents developing in the ocean below a layer of water under the direct influence of the wind...

  Geographical encyclopedia

• - see Aeolian ripple signs...

  Geological encyclopedia

• - asymmetrical ripple marks with a steep leeward slope. The rollers are usually arched, their location in plan is close to parallel...

  Geological encyclopedia

• - associated with the parallel arrangement of elongated shafts. Occurs during the process of plastic flow and recrystallization; its surfaces are usually oriented ┴ to compressive forces. Syn.: cleavage of expiration...

  Geological encyclopedia

• - see Currents...

  Marine dictionary

• - currents that arise in the seas and oceans as a result of the formation of a pressure difference in the water column. The pressure difference is created under the influence of wind surges and surges of water, uneven distribution...
• - currents in reservoirs caused by the action of wind. See Wind Currents...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - horizontal movements of water masses that replenish the loss of water in any part of the ocean, sea, or lake. They can develop in both superficial and deep layers...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - October. pioneer. pioneer leader. be ready! always ready! Timurovets Komsomol. Komsomol member scout. scoutism. scout. Girl Scout. hippie. hipster...

  Ideographic Dictionary of the Russian Language

• - influences of time, prevailing views Wed. Completing legislative work does not sometimes mean implementing it in practice, especially if unfavorable for it occurs...

  Mikhelson Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary

• - Current influences of time, prevailing views. Wed. To carry out legislative work does not sometimes mean to carry it out in practice, especially if unfavorable trends are encountered. A. Ѳ...

  Michelson Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (orig. orf.)

"Wind Currents" in books

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