Questions tagged [ocean-currents]
The ocean-currents tag has no usage guidance.
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Recent sediments from the Central Downwelling Zones of the AMOC
I am looking for research trips on recent sediments (from about 1880) from the Central Downwelling Zones of the AMOC. The focus is on the regions: the Irminger Basin and the Labrador Basin.
I ...
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Why does the geostrophic current spiraling around the slightly elevated middle of an oceanic gyre spiral inward?
So because of Ekman transport, the middle of a gyre is slightly elevated. As a result water starts flowing down the pressure gradient. As it does so it is deflected by the coriolis force until the ...
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Since the upwelling of calcium carbonate reduces surface pCO2, why is its dissolution in the CCD below the lysocline of concern?
Why is so much of the literature I run across regarding global warming concerned with precipitating $\ce{CaCO3}$ to the ocean floor?
In areas of relatively lower pH, such as the eastern equatorial ...
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Can a collapse of the AMOC lead to suboxic conditions?
For a couple of years The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation AMOC has been under observation. There have been examples in the past, when sudden state changes of it lead to short term and ...
user29219
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Density of sea water on the side of currents
A geostrophic current in the northern hemisphere features a pressure gradient force directed towards the left of the current (west if the current heads straight north) and Coriolis force directed to ...
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How does the Coriolis effect explain Ekman transport?
Before answering the question, keep in mind that I am a second year Biology student, with no experience in studying Physics and a very basic understanding of Mathematics. Thus, I would prefer a ...
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Ocean oscillations with long time periods
I heard that some ocean oscillations act on a time scale of a millennium. Is this true, or at least argued by some oceanographers? If so, what are they and what causes them? If not, what are the ...
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Does the California cyclone change the California current?
I opened windy.com for the California area and I found that the California current is displayed in the opposite way - from south to north. Is it affected by the recent cyclone or am I misunderstanding ...
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Indonesian Throughflow and currents map
According to Wikipedia, Indonesian Throughflow passes Lombok Strait from north to south bringing water mass from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
But when I the checked currents map on windy....
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How to construct the tide signal from harmonic constituents?
I am trying to reconstruct the astronomical tide time series from harmonic constituents (calculated from T_Tide).I am using the equation that all knows H(t) = Amplitude * cos ( t * harmonicSpeed + ...
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(Why) is the thermohaline circulation not affected by the coriolis effect?
Why doesn't (e.g.) the equatorward North Atlantic Deep Water bend more to the west?
Is it maybe because the water tends to move relatively slowly and the magnitude of the Coriolis effect depends on ...
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Gulf stream depth and Ekman's theory
The Gulf Stream is said to be
Largely driven by wind stress, and
Up to 1000 m deep.
At the same time, I am reading that
the effect of the wind usually does not reach deeper than 100 m
in Ekman ...
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Are there any types of winds or waves that are produced just by Earth's rotation?
Are there any types of wind or waves caused and produced only and exclusively by Earth's rotation? Not influenced by Earth rotation, but produced solely by it?
In the case of waves, are Rossby waves 1 ...
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Why do the isotherms bulge north of the Bering Strait in winter, and bulge south of the Bering Strait in summer?
My grade-7 geography textbook contains these world average temperatures for January and July.
Average air temperatures in January (winter in the northern hemisphere)
Average air temperatures in July ...
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Velocity boundary conditions from water depth time series
Currently, I am setting up a hydrodynamic model for a coastal zone. For this purpose I need to impose the velocity and water level at the open boundary.
Tidal models (e.g. TPXO) can give both velocity ...
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What is the relationship between Ekman transport and volume transport?
Ekman transport components are in the zonal and meridional direction.
Along the coast of California, which is an eastern boundary coast, say there is wind flowing down the coast in the meridional ...
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How far do substances travel when thrown into the ocean?
If I walk up to a pier and throw kool aid into the ocean, where will those kool aid particles end up on a long enough time scale? Is it arbitrary? Will they travel the entire ocean at one point?
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How large were Mars' ocean tides and to what extent could they keep the oceans mixing and tend to keep salinity uniform? Has this been modeled?
This answer to Salinity of Martian water 3.5 Billion years ago in Astronomy says that most estimates of Mars' ocean's salinity are pretty high;
The article "Water Activity and the Challenge for ...
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how old are the gulf stream and the NAC?
After reading about the NAC (North Atlantic Current) weakening in the news, we got to wondering about its history and that of the gulf stream. Specifically, how and when did they start? Were there ...
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How authentic was the movie scene in "The day after tomorrow" related to the understanding of the north Atlantic current system?
Today's The Guardian headline was that Climate crisis: Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse. It reminded an old movie called "The Day After Tomorrow", which suggested the ...
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How fast is the Gulf Stream near shore?
The Gulf Stream is the fastest ocean current in the world with peak velocities near 2m/s, a surprisingly high figure.
But I think that the speed is out in the open ocean, and it would be slower near ...
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What makes Eastern Boundary Currents cold?
As far as I am aware, there are two separate processes that cause Eastern Boundary Currents (EBCs) to have cold Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs). One is offshore Ekman transport, which leads to coastal ...
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What is the fastest ocean deep current?
The Gulf Stream is the fastest ocean current in the world with peak
velocities near 2m/s.
Source: marine.coastal.edu
What about deep currents, North Atlantic Deep Water, Antarctic Bottom Water, etc?
...
user20559
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Why is Somalia so dry?
Most deserts are a result of the rainshadow effect, cold currents, the subtropical ridges, or a combination of those. Knowing this, how is the Somali desert caused?
It is notable since it has a desert ...
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Is it possible to get trapped in a circle of water in a rip current?
According to the YouTube video Rip Currents: How to Survive the Deadliest Ocean's Trick, a rip current occurs when there are two circles of water spinning close to shore in opposite directions such ...
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What is the weather data covering the range of 359 to 360 degree
I downloaded a grib file of oceanography (Mean Wave Period) from ERA-Interim and the longitude values give the value at the points is 0,1, 2, 3....357, 358, 359
If I have geographical coordinates ...
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Finding vessel and wave's angle of attack [closed]
I am finding angle between ship's heading and component in wave (wave's angle of attack), not sure if ES is a right place to ask this type of question.
Should it be the difference between mean wave ...
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Where can I find wave height/period, current velocity and wind speed/direction data at the Qiangzhou strait in China?
I'm looking for time series of wave height/ period, velocity currents and wind speed/direction specifically for the Qiangzhou strait in China.
Global data sets could also work.
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Why an inertial gyro has a frequency and a geostrophic gyro does not?
Inertial flow is given by the balance between Coriolis and centrifugal forces. A geostrophic flow is given by a balance between Coriolis and the gradients of pressure. The frequency of the inertial ...
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Why do Mediterranean main currents surrounding landmasses turn counter-clockwise?
At North Hemisphere, main superficial currents turn clock-wise, because of Coriolis Effect.
I would expect on Mediterranean Sea to have currents turning in the same sense, but, surrounding landmasses,...
user12525
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What goes into a tide power prediction for every fifteen minutes over the next twenty five years?
I was watching a segment about tidal power generation on a PBS NewsHour broadcast. I've set the time code at about 11:45 to capture a little background. This bit ...
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Velocity gradient of surface ocean current in dephts
How much speed of surface currents decrease in ocean depth? Approximately? I am wondering if there is any significant gradient within the top 30m ocean layer? Can this be theoretically calculated?
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How is the distribution of Argo floats managed over the Earth's oceans?
The BBC News article Climate change: Oceans 'soaking up more heat than estimated' mentions Argo floats as one technology to measure the temperature of the oceans, and links to argo.ucsd.edu where ...
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What is the (average) velocity of ocean currents?
Does anybody know where to find statistical (average, standard deviation) data on velocities of ocean currents, such as
Equatorial countercurrent North of Madagascar
Agulhas current
East Australia ...
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Is there a correlation between the underwater geological activity and topology of the mid Atlantic ridge/ South American plate and the Gulf Stream?
I just had a little eureka moment!
I was looking again at this mid atlantic ridge along the western edge of the Eurasian plate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_volcanoes
How it and the way it ...
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How are chenier ridges and strand plains formed at wave dominated coastlines?
In the attached image, we can see chenier ridges and strand plains. How are they formed and what is the involvement of rip and longshore currents in their formation?
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Why don't Antarctic waters have more upwellings, when Arctic waters are so rich in upwellings?
Formation of ice and hence more dense saltwater sinking happens in both polar regions, creating downwellings. Meanwhile, only a few spots in Antarctica have upwellings
I refer to this image:
https://...
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Stream function on a periodic domain?
Part 1
In this paper the authors calculate the barotropic stream function from an output of a numerical model as:
$$\psi(x,y)=\int_0^y\int_{-H}^0u(x,y',z)~dz~dy'$$
over a global domain and this is ...
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Why does wind blowing against a strong current create way bigger waves?
It's a well known fact that wind will cause very big waves if blowing against a strong current, for example in the gulf stream off the US coast, or in the bay of San Francisco with a very strong (5 ...
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If a prevailing wind traveled due east in the Northern Hemisphere, would the Coriolis Effect act on the water?
I am in a Marine Environmental Science II class, and we are discussing the Ekman Spiral. As I understand, the Coriolis Effect does not occur when whatever is observed does not change latitude. So, if ...
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Did the formation of Panama trigger the beginning of Ice Ages?
I have been studying ocean currents and associated energy flows in the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic oceans. I also looked at El Nino cycles.
I also noted when the large glacial periods ...
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What mechanism is used to measure ocean currents from cables?
The volume transport of the Florida Current (one of the parts of the Gulf Stream) is measured using an underwater cable. What are the processes that allow for these measurements? How can we obtain ...
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Guinea Current existence in the Atlantic
Why does the Guinea Current exist at all? There are no similar currents in the Pacific or Indian Oceans and the Guinea Current also disappear during northern summers. Why?
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Thermohaline current in North Atlantic
The thermohaline current in the North Atlantic ocean sinks because it gets cooled, or it gets cooled because of sinking?
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Depth of the wind-induced currents and the shoreline
In the open sea the speed of the current in the developed sea can be estimated as 3% the wind velocity at 10 meters.
Why is ocean surface velocity around 3% of wind velocity?
Is there a similar ...
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Land's effect on winds and currents?
If we did a thought experiment and imagined the Earth to be covered in a global ocean (ie. no land to slow winds or direct ocean currents) would winds and waves be perpetually enormous or would they ...
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Difference in surface temperature between the Northwest Atlantic and Northeast Atlantic
Why is the surface waters in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean colder than the surface waters of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean?
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Is there a formula to calculate shoreline length or water position from ocean?
Assuming in the past the water of the oceans were lower does it also mean that the water was not where it is right now?
If yes, then how do we calculate approximately where the water would have been ...
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How to calculate the kinetic energy spectra from ocean current timeseries?
How does one practically compute the kinetic energy spectra from a timeseries of u- and v- Cartesian components of ocean current velocity ($m s^{-1}$) obtained from an Acoustic Doppler Current ...
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If a ship on its way to Germany from Norway sank, where will the survivors likely end up?
a) what are the chances, taking into account influencing factors like ocean currents, that these survivors will end up on English shores?
b) what are the chances, again taking into account all ...
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