Oceans and Oceanography
School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences
IIT Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar
Hydrologic Cycle
Ocean Floor
Seamount
Physical Properties of Seawater
• Salinity
• Temperature
• Density
• Sound in Seawater
• Light in the Sea
4
Temperature Measurements
CTD
5
Temperature Measurements
XBT
6
Our Layered Oceans
Surface mixing
zone is
warmest;
saltiest near
bottom of zone.
Transitional
zone contains
thermocline and
halocline.
Deep zone is 2
tons per square
inch and coldest
in temperature.
Dynamics of Our Ocean
Depths
Optical properties of seawater
Gradients – Sound Propagation
Shadow Zones
Thermo, halo & Picnoclines
Ocean & Climate
The ocean plays a dominant role in heat transport and mixing
17
How do we define the science of Oceanography?
Atmospheric winds
“Eddy” regime
Variable weather
Westerly wind
Subtropical high
“Hadley” regime
Intertropical
convergence zone
(ITCZ)
Wind is one of major
driving force for ocean
circulation
Major latitudinal
displacements of surface air
currents: convection currents
drive Hadley cells, pulling air
at surface into Inter-Tropical
Convergence Zone, ITCZ);
Ferrel Cells driven by low
pressure zone at 20º-30º lat.;
Mid-latitude westerlies
converge into jet stream;
polar cells driven by high
pressure (cold) flows out of
polar region along Earth’s
surface towards south.
21
In 1855, Matthew Maury wrote about the Gulf Stream current, which flows off the east
coast of Florida.
“There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest
floods it never overflows; its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of
warm; the Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is the Arctic Sea. It is the Gulf
Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic flow of waters.”
— Matthew Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology
Two hundred fifty years later, Benjamin Franklin, then serving as
Deputy Postmaster General, received complaints that ships
delivering mail between Boston and England took as long as two
months to make the return trip back to America. Merchant ships,
which were heavier and took a less direct route than the mail ships,
were making the trip back from England in just six weeks.
With help from his cousin Timothy Folger, a whaling captain,
Franklin determined that the returning mail ships were sailing
against a strong current that ran along the eastern seaboard and
across the Atlantic to the British Isles. Whalers knew about the
current, whose plankton-rich margins attract whales, and used or
avoided the current as needed to speed their travels. Franklin and
Folger offered their chart of the gulf stream to the mail-ship
captains, with the promise of cutting their return time in half, but
they were largely ignored.
Mean Circulation in
the Ocean
Ocean Circulation
1. Surface Circulation Wind Driven
– Ekman Transport and Geostrophic Currents
– Surface layer and Picnocline zone
– 0 – 50,100m / 50,100m - ~1000m
– Affects ~25% of total water mass
– Fast (1-2 m/s)
2. Deep Circulation Density Driven
– Thermohaline Circulation
– Below Picnocline zone (>~1000m)
– Affects ~75% of total water mass
– Slow (~ m/day)
Surface Ocean Circulation
• Ekman Spiral
• Geostrophic Currents
• Open Ocean Currents
• Global Surface Circulation
Ekman Motion
Ekman Motion
Ekman Spiral
Ekman Spiral
• 45o surface transport offset
• 90o net water transport
• Stronger winds cause deeper water
movement
– Wind 10 m/s 50 – 100 m watercolumn
– Wind 20 m/s 100 – 200 m watercolumn
Coastal Ekman Transport
Regional circulation: Coastal upwelling
Consequences of Ekman Transport
• Ekman affects picnocline layer
• Coastal Upwelling
– Cold surface water, high nutrients
– High phytoplankton productivity
– Great fisheries (Sahara bank, Peru)
• Coastal Downwelling
– Warm surface water, low nutrients
– Low phytoplankton
– Poor fisheries (Northern Brazil)
Open Ocean Surface Currents
Ekman surface transport
Open Ocean Geostrophic currents
Ocean general circulation
Regardless of hemisphere or ocean basin, there
is an intense current on the western boundary
Ocean Circulation
Deep Ocean Currents
Deep Ocean Currents
Antarctic Circumpolar Current