Questions? Destructive Fires Fertilize Ocean? Porter Ranch Fire, Oct
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Introduction to Oceanography Lecture 17, Current Midterm 2: Nov. 20 (Monday) Review Session & Video Screenings TBA Breaking wave and sea foam, Vero Beach, FL, Robert Lawton, Creative Commons A S-A 2.5, NOAA Ocean-Atmosphere Sea Surface Temperature Model, Public Domain, http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/visualizations-oceans http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sea_foam.JPG Santa Ana Winds NASA image, Public Domain, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03892 Winter: Canadian cold air Santa Ana Winds pushes down into Southwestern US High pressure pushes dry desert air ~ 30 mph downsLope, to sea Compression of sinking air causes heating Heating Lowers humidity Piotr Flatau, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_ana_wind1.jpg Wind Speeds: up to ~ 70mph ≈115 km/hr San GabrieL/Bernardino Mtns. FunneLing effect through canyons Feeds dangerous brush fires Weaker in summer Los High Plateau Angeles Mojave Desert Adapted from N. Short Remote Sensing Tutorial/NASA, Public Domain, http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect14/katabati c.jpg Santa Ana Winds UCSD GOES-10/NASA, Public Domain, http://meteora.ucsd.edu/cap/images/junegloom_16jun2004.gif Santa Ana Winds: dry & warm, Encourage Questions? destructive fires FertiLize ocean? Porter Ranch Fire, Oct. 14 2008, NASA image, Public Domain, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/usa/califires_20081014.html 1 Portrait of Ben Franklin, Currents Currents in the Ocean 1785, by Duplessis What is a current? Ocean currents transport water A current is a fLow of materiaL Wind is a current of air MASS IS TRANSPORTED Map by Ben Franklin, 1787 Ben Franklin, 1769, Map of the Gulf Stream, Public domain. The Gulf Stream, Winslow Homer (1899), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY). Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winslow_Homer_004.jpg Currents in the Ocean Surface Currents • Two Types: Surface and Deep Caused by: Wind Stress Pressure Gradients • Driving Forces CorioLis Effects Friction – Surface Currents: Wind-driven – Deep Currents: Density-driven American Meteorological Society, http://oceanmotion.org/images/oc ean-vertical- Gene Paull, UT Brownsville, Public Domain(?), structure_clip_image002.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Corrientes-oceanicas.gif Pressure-Driven Currents Wind-Driven Currents • Wind drives ocean currents • Currents run into continents and can’t continue • Wind acceLerates ocean currents – UNLIKE ATMOSPHERIC FLOWS – FrictionaL Drag • Water piLes up ---Pressure Gradients form Atmosphere Atmosphere L Wind Wind Drag Wind Drag H Wind H Current Current Current Current Ocean Map View Ocean L SIDEVIEW TOPVIEW SIDEVIEW TOPVIEW Figures, UCLA Figures, UCLA 2 North AtLantic Surface Currents CorioLis & currents SimpLe picture – winds push surface currents, water piLes • Currents are affected by Earth’s ROTATION! 60ºN up where wind blows – This is caLLed the “Ekman” response onto coastLines (e.g., AtLantic coast of S. 30ºN America). Atmosphere BUT: CorioLis acts on Wind currents! Drag Equator Wind Background image: U.S. Government, Currents Currents extracted from PDF version of the Vol 26-4 Ocean 2004 DISAM Journal (direct PDF URL [1]), Public Domain, SIDEVIEW TOPVIEW http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Globe_ Figures, UCLA Atlantic.svg Ekman SpiraL Winds ~60ºN V. Walfrid Ekman (Sweden) • Surface defLection 45o right of wind (in N. Hemisphere) • DefLected further right with depth • Net (i.e., average) effect of Ekman spiraL: Horse Latitudes ~ 30o N Transport 90º to the right of the wind direction in the northern hemisphere Left of wind in the southern hemisphere Equator NOAA image, Public Domain, http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Water/ekman.ht ml&edu=elem Figures, UCLA Drag from the wind on surface water Wind-dragged & Basin-Edge Currents L H Horse Latitudes ~ 30o N Horse Latitudes ~ 30o N H L Figures, UCLA Figures, UCLA 3 FinaL resuLt: a Loop of current, a Gyre CorioLis “Geostrophic” Response L H Gene Paull, UT Brownsville, Public Domain(?), http://upload.wiki Horse Latitudes ~ 30o N media.org/wikipe dia/commons/0/0 H 6/Corrientes- N. AtLantic oceanicas.gif Gyre H L One subtropicaL gyre is found in each hemisphere in each ocean. Gyres rotate cLockwise in the N. Hemisphere, countercLockwise in S. Hemisphere. Figures, UCLA CorioLis “Geostrophic” Response QUESTIONS? Mean 1992-2002 dynamic ocean topography, Nikolai Maximenko (IPRC) and Peter Niiler (SIO), Public Domain, http://apdrc.soest.hawaii.e du/projects/DOT/1992- 2002MDOT.jpeg Average sateLLite-measured “hiLL” of water at western side of gyre. Gene Paull, UT Brownsville, Public Domain(?), Why isn’t the high pressure in the center of the ocean? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Corrientes-oceanicas.gif Major Current Systems Major Current Systems 1. North AtLantic gyre 2. South AtLantic gyre 3. North Pacific gyre N. AtLantic 4. South Pacific gyre N. Pacific 5. Indian Ocean gyre 6. Antarctic CircumpoLar Current S. Pacific Indian • Not a gyre! S. AtLantic Gene Paull, UT Brownsville, Public Domain(?), http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Corrientes-oceanicas.gif 4 Currents on each edge of a Gyre have names. Transverse Currents Transverse Current • Driven primariLy by Wind Stress • Antarctic CircumpoLar Current is the largest of these Transverse Current Cropped from Gene Paull, UT Brownsville, Public Domain(?), http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Corrientes-oceanicas.gif Gene Paull, UT Brownsville, Public Domain(?), http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Corrientes-oceanicas.gif Antarctic CircumpoLar Current EquatoriaL Currents • Found on either side of the equator Not a gyre! Southern Westerlies drive largest volume current on Earth • Flow to the west – 100 x 106 m3/s on average. – 600 times the flow of the Amazon! – WHY? • Constant strong westerly winds • No continents to disrupt flow in southern ocean • Home of the most violent seas on Earth Storm waves, Southern Ocean, R. Easther, Australian Antarctic Division, http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp ?casid=2341 Gene Paull, UT Brownsville, Public Domain(?), http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Corrientes-oceanicas.gif Western Boundary Currents North AtLantic Gyre Boundary Currents Cold, cold Northern Canada Temperate Northern Gulf Stream Europe British National Centre for Ocean Forecasting, Public 100 Domain(?), http://www.nerc- 50 essc.ac.uk/ncof/merse Sea Surface a/css- 0 gif/Mapwithrectangle.g Height (cm) 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 if Redhttp://www.itrd.gov/pubs/blue96/images/temp.atlantic.gif -- Warm surface waterBlue -- CoLd surface water Distance (km) 5 CorioLis “Geostrophic” Response Current fLow rate in the GuLf Stream, in units of 106 m3/sec (roughLy: miLLions of tons/sec) 106 m3/sec = 60 Mississippi Rivers! Centers of gyre “hills”: Sargasso Sea, W. Pacific, Madagascar, etc. Image from Sverdrup, Johnson, and Fleming, Sverdrup H.U., Johnson M.W., Fleming R.H. The Oceans.. their Animation from the Naval Research Laboratory, Public Domain, physics, chemistry, and general biology (1942), http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/modas2d/anims/gbl/httot_gbl_12mon.fli http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/ocng_textbook/chapter11/Images/Fig11-7.htm GuLf Stream time-lapse Surface Temp. Western Boundary Currents • Fastest, deepest gyre currents – EquatoriaL currents are defLected to high Latitudes by continents – Transport warm water to high Latitudes • GuLf Stream (N. AtLantic); Kuroshio Current (N. Pacific); BraziL Current (S. AtLantic); AguLhas Current (Indian); East Australian Current (S. Pacific) • Gulf Stream is king of them all! 2 m/s ≈ 200 km/day 55x106 m3/sec = 55 Sverdrups transported > 3000 Mississippi Rivers! U. Miami /CIMAS, Public Domain. http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/img_rrsl/sst-composit.avi Eastern Boundary Currents Boundary Currents • ShaLLow, broad, sLow currents Current Width (km) Depth (km) Flow Rate – Return fLow to Low Latitudes (km/day) – Transport coLd water to the equator – RoughLy 1/10 the speed of WBCs Western < 100 km 1-2 km ~ 100 • Canary Current (N. AtLantic); CaLifornia Boundary km/day Current (N. Pacific); BengueLa Current (S. AtLantic); West AustraLian Current Eastern > 1000 km < 0.5 km ~ 10 (Indian); Peru Current (S. Pacific) Boundary km/day 6.