A&O SCI 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Heat Flux, Thermohaline Circulation, Ekman Transport
8 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Upwelling: coriolis force, ekman drift, distribution. This water is almost always cold relative to the water it replaces because of the vertical temperature structure of the ocean. Stratification makes it hard to bring waters to the surface. The energy source for upwelling is provided by winds. Because of earth"s rotation, objects moving in the southern hemisphere are deflected to the left and objects moving in the northern hemisphere are deflected to the right. The net transport of water, is to the left of the wind in the southern hemisphere and right of the wind in the northern hemisphere. The circulation is organized into gyres which rotate clockwise in the northern hemisphere and rotate counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. The frictional effects of winds on the ocean surface generate the surface ocean circulation. Salinity is greatest in the subtropics, where evaporation is the greatest. Salinity is highest in the atlantic basin.
