News tagged with ocean circulation

Scientists aboard Iberian coast ocean drilling expedition report early findings

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mediterranean bottom currents and the sediment deposits they leave behind offer new insights into global climate change, the opening and closing of ocean circulation gateways and locations ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Huge pool of Arctic fresh water could cool Europe

British scientists have discovered an enormous dome of fresh water in the western Arctic Ocean. They think it may result from strong Arctic winds accelerating a great clockwise ocean circulation called the ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Pinot noir grapes reveal 700-year climate record

The French call pinot noir "the noble grape" and have long considered it a source of inspiration. Now it can also be appreciated as the reason for an extensive, localized climate record.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 09, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

NASA's Jason-1 achieves a one-decade landmark

(PhysOrg.com) -- On Dec. 7, 2001, NASA and the French Space Agency Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) launched the Jason-1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., embarking on a planned ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Baby turtles don't just go with the flow

At just a few centimeters long, hatchling loggerhead turtles may seem powerless to resist being swept around the Atlantic Ocean by powerful currents.

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 02, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Environmental conditions and predators affect Atlantic salmon survival in the Gulf of Maine

Stocks of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), which have been steadily declining for the past few decades, are facing new challenges in the Gulf of Maine, where changing spring wind patterns, warming sea surface temperatures and ...

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Stalled weather systems more frequent in decades of warmer Atlantic

(PhysOrg.com) -- Slow-moving winter weather systems that can lead to massive snowfalls are more frequent during the decades when the North Atlantic Ocean is warmer than usual, a new NASA study finds. The study ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Researchers discover Icelandic current, change North Atlantic climate picture

An international team of researchers, including physical oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has confirmed the presence of a deep-reaching ocean circulation system off Iceland ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 21, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 39 | with audio podcast

What caused a giant arrow-shaped cloud on Saturn's moon Titan?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Why does Titan, Saturn's largest moon, have what looks like an enormous white arrow about the size of Texas on its surface?

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 16, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (20) | comments 36 | with audio podcast

TRMM satellite sees 4 possibilities for the next Atlantic tropical storm

On Friday, August 12th, there were no named tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Ocean. However, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is now monitoring four areas in the Atlantic Ocean that have potential ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 13, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

How ocean arteries carry life across the Indian Ocean

Research at the University of Melbourne and the Bureau of Meteorology has overturned conventional ideas of ocean circulation.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jun 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 3

New CryoSat-2 satellite redraws Arctic sea-ice map

Scientists have produced the most extensive map of Arctic sea-ice thickness yet using just two months' worth of data from the European Space Agency's ice mission, CryoSat-2.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jun 22, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Atmospheric carbon dioxide buildup unlikely to spark abrupt climate change

There have been instances in Earth history when average temperatures have changed rapidly, as much as 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) over a few decades, and some have speculated the same could happen again as ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jun 20, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (13) | comments 27 | with audio podcast

New research points to the significant role of oceans in ancient global cooling (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Thirty-eight million years ago, tropical jungles thrived in what are now the cornfields of the American Midwest and furry marsupials wandered temperate forests in what is now the frozen Antarctic. ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 26, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

West coast radar network is world's largest

A network of high-frequency radar systems designed for mapping ocean surface currents now provides detail of coastal ocean dynamics along the U.S. West Coast never before available.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Ocean current

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon the water, such as the Earth's rotation, wind, temperature, salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun. Depth contours, shoreline configurations and interaction with other currents influence a current's direction and strength.

Ocean currents can flow for thousands of kilometers, and together they create the great flow of the global conveyor belt which plays a dominant part in determining the climate of many of the Earth’s regions. Perhaps the most striking example is the Gulf Stream, which makes northwest Europe much more temperate than any other region at the same latitude. Another example is the Hawaiian Islands, where the climate is cooler (sub-tropical) than the tropical latitudes in which they are located, because of the effect of the California Current.

For more information about Ocean current, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: gravity field