ENVS 2270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Radiative Cooling, Boundary Current, North Atlantic Deep Water
15 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Driven by differences in density caused by differences in temperature (and salinity) Cold, dense water around the roles sink to ocean floor. Called the north atlantic deep water (nadw) Flows very slowly and rises back to the surface in the subtropics. Returns to the poles as near-surface or surface currents. There have been reports of climate change affecting the thermohaline circulation. Involves only 10% of the volume of the ocean. Major impact on both weather and climate. Due to effects of wind and coriolis effect. Wind blowing over the oceans sets surface water in motion. Other contributing factors include distribution of continents. Surface currents move at an angle to the wind. Deflected due to coriolis effect (to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere) Average movement of seawater under influence of wind. 90 degrees to the right of wind in northern hemisphere. 90 degree to the left of wind in southern hemisphere.
