How Does the Ocean and Air Work Together to Moderate the Climate?

Argo floats are used to measure temperature, salinity and currents in the ocean at depth which allows the construction of vertical profiles of these variables. CE: E1.2k, E4.2e Investigate the social and economic impact of El Nino on societies in the equatorial Pacific region. Evaluate the mitigating actions occurring with increasing El Nino prediction capabilities. E2.1C The current warming trend is resulting in the melting of glacial ice. Other possible effects include the melting of permafrost (releasing methane) and also warming oceans which melts methane hydrates of the ocean floor. E2.1-Earth Systems Overview E2.2-Energy in Earth Systems Name______E4.2-Oceans and Climate E4.2B Date ______Hr____

Engel’s earth science on a shoestring© What is Argo? Argo floats are used to measure temperature, salinity and currents in the ocean at depth. This allows scientists to construct vertical profiles of the variables of salt and temperature. These measurements are important because oceans affect atmospheric temperature and humidity, while atmospheric winds drive and direct ocean surface currents. Heat energy is transferred between the ocean and the atmosphere by conduction and within the atmosphere by convection. Click here!!- Argo floats How are Argo able to descend and ascend? Here's how it all works: A battery-powered motor inside the float pushes oil in and out of a small, flexible, and inflatable bladder outside, making the float bigger or smaller. When the oil inflates the bladder, the float rises. It sinks when the oil is drained back inside. Then it's ready for another dive! Because the ocean's density increases with depth, once a float's volume is set, it

sinks or rises until the floats density matches the water density. In October 2007, the Argo project achieved its goal of 3000 operating floats. These are providing around 100,000 observations each year, throughout all the ice-free deep-ocean areas of the world. Around 800 floats will need to be deployed each year to maintain the 3000+ float array.

1 How does the ocean and air work together to moderate the climate? What is the main ingredient of climate? Not the Earth's atmosphere, but the oceans. Just the top few meters alone store as much heat energy as the entire atmosphere, and the oceans average 3.7 kilometers deep. Most of the world's water is there too, of course, and even most of the gases, dissolved in the water. Radiation from the Sun heats the land and water of Earth which in turn, heats the atmosphere. Thermal (heat) energy produces movement of matter (convection) observed in wind and ocean currents. Thermal energy also moves between the ocean and the atmosphere when water evaporates and condenses as clouds. The oceans affect the earth’s air temperature and humidity, while winds drive and direct ocean surface currents. Heat in the air and ocean is absorbed and released because of the evaporation and condensation of water. Ocean gyres happen because of both the wind driven surface currents, Coriolis Effect, and the location of continents. As you know the Coriolis Effect makes objects APPEAR to curve as they travel over a rotating surface. You may have heard that the direction of rotation in draining sinks and toilets is caused by this effect. It is NOT. The rotation is caused when the basin was being filled or by washing. The rotation of the Earth does

cause the direction of rotation of large weather systems and large gyres in the oceans, for these are very long-lived events and allow the very weak Coriolis force to produce a large effect, with time. If you look at the lines on the map to the left, the red lines show warm currents, the blue cold currents. The warm Gulf Stream current causes Great Britain and northwestern Europe to be much warmer than would be predicted based on their latitude. The Labrador Current in a similar way cools the east coast of Canada.

El Niño is an oscillation (back and forth motion) of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific causing effects on weather around the globe. El Nino increases the frequency of drought and fires in northern Australia and Indonesia, and flooding in Ecuador and Peru. Our ability to predict El Nino events allow farmers to change what crops they plant for the upcoming season.

2 Open the following blue link and answer the questions that follow. http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2501110.htm 1. Argo is a major international collaborative project to look at the world's oceans and help understand processes at depth - monitoring the pulse of the global heat balance and giving us vital information on the ocean's role in __climate___. 2. The upper layers of the ocean are warming _50_ % faster than previously thought. 3. As the planet warms the _Hydrological/water______cycle gets stronger.

Open the following link and answer the questions that follow. http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/26_NinoNina.html 4. During normal conditions, air flows from high pressure to Low pressure and causes upwelling near _South_ America. The thermocline that separates warm, surface water from salty, dense cold water is lifted by the South _American__ coast. A low pressure system and _rain__ (liquid precipitation) falls near the longitude of 180°

5. During El Niño conditions, air flows from high pressure near 180° to Low pressure and causes upwelling near South America to stop. A low pressure system and rain falls near the South ___America___. Atmospheric pressure systems switch. This is called _Southern__ oscillation. 6. This process takes about _10_ months.

Open the following blue links and answer the questions that follow. Knowing that hot air and water want to flow STRAIGHT from the equator to the cold poles, explain after how the Coriolis Effect controls oceanic circulation. http://earthsciweb.org/GeoMod/installers/Windows/coriolis_16_GeoMod.exe(Install this exe file to your DESKTOP and figure out what the Coriolis Effect is from there!!) 7. In the Coriolis Effect, objects appear to take _curved__ paths as the move in a straight path across a rotating surface. (Like ocean currents and winds appear to curve as they move across the surface of the earth.) Open the following blue links and click on at least three dots- Argo Google Earth layers

Open the following link and answer the questions that follow.

3 http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es0602/es0602page01.cfm8. Increased precipitation from El Niño conditions on the volcanic arc of South America will cause increased formation of what type of rocks? __sedimentary_____ 9. Gravel settles out _near/first__ shore and clay settles out __far/last___ from shore. Observe the graph of the ocean layers to the right. 10. What is the smoothed trend of temperature as depth increases? The temperature ___decreases______11. What is the smoothed trend of salinity as depth increases? The salinity ___ increases INVESTIGATION-INVESTIGATION-

Question How do the Argo Floats and submarines change their buoyancy? (Overall Density) Procedure:

Step 1- Please remove the GLASS eyedropper from the 2L bottle.

Step 2-Fill the empty 2L plastic pop bottle with cool water to 1 to 2 cm below the disk shaped ring that is near the threads for the lid.

Step 3- Place the eyedropper into the 2L bottle and snugly screw the lid down.

Steps 4-Please gently squeeze the bottle’s sides and record what happens to air inside the eyedropper as you squeeze the bottle. Record this observation in the observation section of the lab.

Step 5-Please squeeze the bottle and get the dropper to “hover” in the center of the 2L bottle. What happens to the level of the air in the eyedropper as you squeeze the bottle? ___It was reduced____

Step 6-Squeeze the 2L bottle filled with salt water. Is it easier or harder to submerge the eyedropper in the 2L filled with salt water bottle or freshwater? Why do you think this is so? ___Salt water is more dense and therefore harder to submerge in!

4 http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/elnino/index.html

http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/ Argo float location