News tagged with ocean circulation
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
Aug 21, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (13) |
39
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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
Aug 16, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (20) |
36
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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
May 26, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
1
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Dead Ahead: Similar Early Warning Signals of Change in Climate, Ecosystems, Financial Markets, Human Health
(PhysOrg.com) -- What do abrupt changes in ocean circulation and Earth's climate, shifts in wildlife populations and ecosystems, the global finance market and its system-wide crashes, and asthma attacks and ...
Sep 02, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (19) |
4
Two More Earth's Chandler Wobble Jumps Revealed, Last in 2005
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Chandler Wobble is a small variation in the rotation of the Earth on its axis. It has been known for some time that the phase of the Chandler Wobble jumped by 180 degrees in the 1920s, ...
Sep 02, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (17) |
5
Mini Gradiometer Could Map Other Planets' Gravity Fields
(PhysOrg.com) -- Although it may seem like gravity is the same everywhere on the Earth, it actually varies a small amount from place to place. Factors such as mountains, ocean trenches, and interior density ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 10, 2009 |
3.9 / 5 (7) |
1
Long debate ended over cause, demise of ice ages -- may also help predict future
Researchers have largely put to rest a long debate on the underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages on Earth for the past 2.5 million years - they are ultimately linked to slight shifts in solar radiation caused ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 06, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (24) |
63
New type of El Nino could mean more hurricanes make landfall
El Niño years typically result in fewer hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Ocean. But a new study suggests that the form of El Niño may be changing potentially causing not only a greater number of hurricanes ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 02, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (20) |
12
Ocean Circulation Doesn't Work As Expected
(PhysOrg.com) -- The familiar model of Atlantic ocean currents that shows a discrete "conveyor belt" of deep, cold water flowing southward from the Labrador Sea is probably all wet.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 13, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (29) |
52
Sea Level Rise Due to Global Warming Poses Threat to New York City
(PhysOrg.com) -- Global warming is expected to cause the sea level along the northeastern U.S. coast to rise almost twice as fast as global sea levels during this century, putting New York City at greater ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (139) |
34
Geophysicists employ novel method to identify sources of global sea level rise
As the Earth's climate warms, a melting ice sheet produces a distinct and highly non-uniform pattern of sea-level change, with sea level falling close to the melting ice sheet and rising progressively farther away. The pattern ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 24, 2012 |
4.1 / 5 (8) |
54
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CO2 was hidden in the ocean during the Ice Age: study
Why did the atmosphere contain so little carbon dioxide (CO2) during the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago? Why did it rise when the Earth's climate became warmer? Processes in the ocean are responsible for this, says a new study ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 29, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (10) |
50
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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
Jan 23, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
3
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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
Dec 09, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (5) |
2
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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.
Dec 02, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
0
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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.
