Ocean circulation refers to the large-scale, coherent movement of seawater driven primarily by wind stress, density gradients (thermohaline processes), Earth’s rotation, and basin geometry. It encompasses wind-driven gyres, western boundary currents, and the global overturning circulation that links surface and deep waters across ocean basins. Ocean circulation redistributes heat, salt, carbon, nutrients, and tracers, thereby regulating climate, biogeochemical cycles, and sea level. It is studied using in situ observations, satellite remote sensing, numerical models, and theory, with key research focusing on circulation variability, its sensitivity to forcing (e.g., greenhouse gas–induced warming and freshwater input), and associated feedbacks in the climate system.
A team of geophysicists and atmospheric scientists at Princeton's NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science has found evidence that a warming planet over the ...
New research from an international group looking at ancient sediment cores in the North Atlantic has for the first time shown a strong correlation between sediment changes and a marked period of global cooling that occurred ...
Earth Sciences
May 16, 2025
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Beneath the surface of the Southern Ocean, vast volumes of cold, dense water plunge off the Antarctic continental shelf, cascading down underwater cliffs to the ocean floor thousands of meters below. These hidden waterfalls ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 22, 2025
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Much of Earth's heat uptake is passed to the ocean, making ocean heat content key for understanding long-term climate patterns. Ocean heat content is typically lower during ice ages and rises during warmer periods of glacier ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 14, 2025
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As global temperatures warm, the Southern Ocean—between Antarctica and other continents—will eventually release heat absorbed from the atmosphere, leading to projected long-term increases in precipitation over East Asia and ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 6, 2025
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The ocean is a vital part of our planet's climate system. Through its global circulation patterns, the ocean draws vast quantities of our planet's heat and carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Earth Sciences
Apr 4, 2025
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A simulation on the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has been conducted by a PKU research team led by Nie Ji, Associate Professor of the School of Physics; and Hu Yongyun, Dean of the Institute ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 2, 2025
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A research group led by Associate Professor Kohei Mizobata, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, including researchers from the National Institute of Polar Research, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 1, 2025
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351
One of the ocean currents in the Arctic Ocean is at risk of disappearing this century because of climate change, according to a new joint study from the University of Gothenburg and the German Alfred Wegener Institute. As ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 31, 2025
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A new study analyzed nearly four decades of deep ocean observations to reveal significant cooling and freshening of deep water in the Subtropical North Atlantic. The results suggest that warmer, saltier deep waters observed ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 26, 2025
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