Wind-driven circulation ocean

Momentum is mostly transferred from the atmosphere to the ocean, having the effect of driving the ocean circulation through the production of a wind-driven flow. Of course, the resultant flow carries heat and water, so contributing to fluxes of these quantities to the atmosphere in ways that would not have occurred without the establishment of the wind-driven circulation in the first place. 

Chemical d5mamics and mechanisms of reactions in the ocean-atmosphere system on time scales equal to and less than that of ocean circulation are evaluated by stud5nng the distribution of chemical compounds within the sea. In order to understand the processes controlling the chemical distributions and their rates, one must know something about how the ocean circulates. The following brief descriptive overview describes the main wind-driven and thermohaline current distributions. 

Axell, L. B., 2002. Wind-driven internal waves and Langmuir circulations in a numerical ocean model of the southern Baltic Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research, 107 (Cl 1), 3204, doi 10.1029/ 2001JC000922. 

Surface ocean currents respond primarily to the climatic wind field. The prevailing winds supply much of the energy that drives surface water movements. This becomes clear when charts of the surface winds and ocean surface currents are superimposed. The wind-driven circulation occurs principally in the upper few hundred meters and is therefore primarily a horizontal circulation, although... 

Proshutinsky, A. and Johnson, M. (1997) Two circulation regimes of the wind-driven Arctic Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research, 102, 12493-12512. 

Combining a series of vertical profiles, as in Figure 2, will give a slice or section through the ocean. Sections through the eastern Pacific and Atlantic are shown in Figure 3. The absence of CFCs in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean shows the relative isolation of the deep Pacific from contact with the atmosphere on timescales of decades. In contrast, the North Atlantic north of 35°N has CFCs in deep and bottom waters, because these waters form in the high latitudes of the North Atlantic and easily spread equatorward on timescales of 10-20 years. As part of the density-driven, thermohaline circulation some of these waters will eventually be transported into the Pacific, but it will take hundreds of years. The upper waters of both oceans are in contact with the atmosphere on much shorter timescales. These upper waters are part of the wind-driven circulation. 

The solubility pump is defined as the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the ocean as mediated by physical processes such as heat flux, advection and diffusion, and ocean circulation. It assists in the transfer of atmospheric GO2 to the deep ocean. This transfer is controlled by circulation patterns of the surface ocean (wind-driven... 

Wind-driven circulation occurs as a consequence of friction and turbulence imparted by wind blowing over the sea surface. This circulation pattern is primarily horizontal in movement and is responsible for transporting warm water from lower latitudes (warm) to higher latitudes (cold). Surface currents move water and carbon great distances within ocean... 

Once in the ocean, the tides and currents driven by wind control the circulation of shallow water. Seven major currents, shown in Figure 2.1 [27], move water around the globe the West Wind Drift (or the Antarctic Circumpolar Current), East Wind Drift, the North and South Equatorial currents, the Peru Current, the Kuroshio Current, and the Gulf Stream. These currents can move quickly. The Gulf Stream, for example, usually travels at a speed of 3 or 4 knots, which is equivalent to 5.6 to 7.4 kilometers per hour [27]. As these currents spiral through the ocean they form five major gyres the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian Ocean gyres. 

This is a matter of considerable controversy given the current lack of consensus on the importance of winds and tidally driven internal waves in driving meridional overturning circulation. Nevertheless, evidence for changes in circulation have been construed from a freshening of low-latitude surfece seawater in the Atlantic Ocean and a slowdown in NADW formation between 1998 and 2004. 

Circulation in the near-surface ocean is driven by fiiction of wind on the atmosphere-ocean interface, whereas in deeper waters it is mostly density-driven. Unequal heating of the Earth s surface creates... 

The oceans cover two-thirds of the earth s surface. Driven by the wind and heated by solar radiation, this moving bulk of water directly affects earth s climate (e.g., the impact of the North Atlantic circulation on West Europe s climate). These huge amounts of flowing water have an enor-... 

Circulation in the Columbia River estuary is primarily driven by tides, river discharges, and salinity- and temperature-induced density differences between freshwater and ocean water. In addition, wind and Eastern North Pacific Ocean currents are important factors in the dynamics of the Columbia River plume, and ocean-water heat exchange regulates temperatures inlateralbays in the estuary and at ocean scales. Arguably, current-wave interaction is also a significant factor at the entrance of the estuary. 

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