Questions tagged [ocean-currents]
The ocean-currents tag has no usage guidance.
17
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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How much does the Meridional Overturning Circulation strengthen the Gulf Stream?
While the Gulf Stream is a western boundary current (WBC), one professor told me that the Gulf Stream is stronger than it should be just by using theoretical calculations of WBC. How much is the heat+...
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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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Relationship between obliquity, antarctic circumpolar current, and atmospheric $\ce{CO2}$
Hannah's text on the biology of climate change appears to suggest that forcing due to changes in obliquity can act in opposite ways in Antarctic waters. On one hand,
"Low obliquity brings cool ...
- 61
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What would the climate be like on an Earth-like planet if it had only one convection cell per hemisphere?
Earth has three convection cells per hemisphere. These are the Polar cell, Ferrel cell and Hadley cell. These create the trade winds, westerlies and polar easterlies which control many aspects of ...
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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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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 ...
5
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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 ...
- 499
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Does the Labrador current affect North Atlantic climate?
This summer has seen very low sea surface temperature anomalies in the North Atlantic.
Using animations of these over the last year I feel the runoff of freshwater from Hudson Bay, into the Labrador ...
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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 ...
4
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55
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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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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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Do U & V vectors differ depending on GRIB layers (wind vs current)?
Essentially I would like to know how current direction "DIR C" and wind direction "WDIR" for gribs is computed.
I'm trying to compute some angles from u and v vectors in grib files. My understanding ...
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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 ...
- 51
2
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27
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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 ...
- 133
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30
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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 ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
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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 ...
- 51
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0
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393
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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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