OCNG 251 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, Ocean Gyre, Equatorial Counter Current
8 May 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Currents redistribute heat around globe, so you better understand climate by learning currents. Currents= water masses that are moving: can be large, small. Similar to winds, currents transfer heat from one part of globe to the other. Surface currents: wind driven, primarily horizontal in direction. Deep currents: driven by differences in density, horizontal and vertical. Direct methods: drift meters and flow meters: drift meters, dropped in water and tracked over time, moves with current. Adcp= acoustic doppler current profiler: can be small, larger, stationary or on a moving platform. Radar altimetry: map can get complex because it shows surface and deep seafloor currents altogether. More difficult to measure: a lot more ground to cover. (cid:272)ie(cid:374)tists ofte(cid:374) follo(cid:449) the(cid:373) usi(cid:374)g (cid:272)he(cid:373)i(cid:272)al tra(cid:272)ers: cfc"s, tritiu(cid:373: can be naturally occurring or added intentionally. Radioisotopes produced during testing of nuclear weapons have been used as tracers: may not always be possible because the radioisotopes may eventually go away.
