18
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch Equilibrium Points
Yes, you're right, there should be (at least one) saddle point in the middle of the loop. And indeed, if you search for illustrations of Pacific ocean circulation, you can see the saddle point in ...
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18
votes
Great Pacific Garbage Patch Equilibrium Points
Theoretically, I agree that there should be one instable equilibrium point between the two stable equilibrium points when we have a 2D current field. However, there are some additional components of ...
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13
votes
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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?
I'm not sure how much I can comment about it, but here we go (that's a joke... maybe).
Is it realistic in the collapse of the current system? Well kind of, but not in the timespan that is suggested. ...
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10
votes
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What causes these odd-looking currents in the Tasman Sea?
Great question. These features are mesoscale Eddies and they are akin to hurricanes in the atmosphere. They are the ocean’s high or low pressure systems and are the result of instabilities. The ...
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8
votes
Thermohaline: Why is cold and dense seawater salty when warm water holds more dissolved salts?
Warm water does hold more salt - at saturation, but seawater isn't even close to saturation. Surface sea water gets warm, starts to evaporate (hence clouds) and therefore gets denser. So it sinks to ...
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8
votes
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What is the weather data covering the range of 359 to 360 degree
Remember that 360° == 0°. They're the same line of longitude. So the gap between 359° and 0° is no more than the gap between 1° and 2°, and should be handled the same way.
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7
votes
How to measure ocean vertical velocity?
Direct measurements of three-dimensional ocean currents are carried out with acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs). The ADCPs are usually moored and bottom mounted instead of being ship-based or ...
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7
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What is the (average) velocity of ocean currents?
This is not meant to be a comprehensive answer:
Sometimes the easiest way to calculate the velocity of an ocean current is to take the published transport of the current and divide by the total depth ...
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7
votes
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How is the distribution of Argo floats managed over the Earth's oceans?
I think, there are two factors which prevent the forming of clusters of floats:
The floats' lifespan. Batteries supposedly last for four years, then the floats become debris which sink to the bottom ...
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7
votes
What goes into a tide power prediction for every fifteen minutes over the next twenty five years?
Tide prediction at some locale is more of an empirical art rather than an analytic science. It essentially is a reduction of decades or centuries of historical tide levels at the locale to Fourier-...
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7
votes
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Does the California cyclone change the California current?
I'm certainly no oceanographer, but my initial thoughts were that most currents likely both vary and meander a lot. And I'd expect much like the semi-permanent atmospheric pressure systems, apart ...
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6
votes
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What are the effects of underwater "windmills"?
As you have noted, this technology is new, and so far only small numbers of experimental tidal energy converters (TECs) have been deployed. For this reason, little has been possible in the way of ...
- 5,800
6
votes
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ocean current frequency
Ocean currents can be described as flow oscillations that are forced at different frequencies. In the absence of any external forces (wind, friction), the resulting flow is the inertial motion, which ...
- 15.4k
6
votes
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What is the relationship between Ekman transport and Ekman pumping?
The link is the conservation of mass equation: $$ \frac{\partial u}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial v}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial w}{\partial z} = 0. $$
Briefly, Ekman pumping is the horizontal ...
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6
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If a ship on its way to Germany from Norway sank, where will the survivors likely end up?
The survivors would probably end up in Jutland or Norway, maybe Sweden due to the currents.
CC BY-SA 3.0
The main wind pattern is also western, but with prevailing eastern winds, they might end up ...
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6
votes
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Indonesian Throughflow and currents map
The average conditions of the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) are well-represented by the top figure.
The transport varies significantly throughout the year. One main driver of the change in transport ...
- 15.4k
5
votes
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Difference in surface temperature between the Northwest Atlantic and Northeast Atlantic
The main reason is that the Gulf Stream transports warm surface water from the tropics, driven by the thermohaline circulation. The tropical trade winds push surface water towards Western Atlantic and ...
- 5,936
5
votes
Land's effect on winds and currents?
A few thoughts - assuming like you say that the aqua-planet is the same size as earth, and all else being equal, it's best to consider the two major classes of waves:
Nondispersive wind generated ...
- 432
5
votes
Thermohaline current in North Atlantic
Complementary to the points about salinity emphasised by TomO and S Verhoef, one more point to emphasise is the role of deep ocean convection. You may have in mind this picture of water sinking ...
5
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If a prevailing wind traveled due east in the Northern Hemisphere, would the Coriolis Effect act on the water?
The Coriolis Effect occurs in all directions equally, even straight zonal (east-west) winds.
Many indeed struggle with this idea - this Physics SE question has a fair explanation as to why.
As ...
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Are there any types of winds or waves that are produced just by Earth's rotation?
Yes. Such a thing is called an inertial oscillation.
Kelvin waves are not examples of inertial oscillations. Kelvin waves balance the earth's rotation against the normal force of a topographic ...
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4
votes
What causes these odd-looking currents in the Tasman Sea?
I'm posting this as an answer rather than a comment to expand a bit on the excellent answer from Isopycnal Oscillation and note some minor differences I observed.
I had actually looked for ...
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4
votes
Is there a way to find the direction to land in the middle of an ocean?
An experienced Polynesian navigator would be the best person to answer this question but as a qualified ocean yacht master and having taught Coastguard courses including navigation, I believe there is ...
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4
votes
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Land's effect on winds and currents?
They would come to equilibrium, or rather steady state, at which energy input ultimately from the Sun matches energy dissipation by friction. The wind speeds would be somewhat higher because water ...
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4
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Depth of the wind-induced currents and the shoreline
First, a bit of background, following the Navier-Stokes equations and assuming steady state conditions, we can obtain a simplified balance known as Ekman balance for the boundary layer of the upper ...
- 15.4k
4
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Why does wind blowing against a strong current create way bigger waves?
There are two physical processes at play here:
Wind speed relative to the ocean surface
Wave focusing and blocking in opposing current
Wind speed relative to the ocean surface
As you describe in ...
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4
votes
What goes into a tide power prediction for every fifteen minutes over the next twenty five years?
As another answer has stated, tides can broadly be predicted far ahead by harmonic analysis (which is similar to taking a fourier transform of the tidal signal, but only allowing frequencies that ...
- 5,800
4
votes
Accepted
How fast is the Gulf Stream near shore?
Along the eastern US coast, the Gulf Stream travels over broad, and shallow, continental shelf. On the western edge of this shelf, friction slows the Gulf Stream as does seasonally driven local ...
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