1. Earth System Science II – EES 717
Spring 2012
1. The Earth Interior – Mantle Convection & Plate Tectonics
2. The Atmosphere - Climate Models, Climate Change and Feedback Processes
3. The Oceans – Circulation; climate and the oceans

2. Key Points to Remember
The global wind system acts to redistribute heat between lows and high latitudes.
Coriolis force influences the direction of winds as they move from regions of high pressure to regions of low pressure.
Differential heating between land and water greatly influences global wind patterns.
Mid-latitude weather is systems are cyclones and anticyclones. Low latitude circulation is characterized by spiraling Hadley cells.
Heat is transported to higher latitudes through convective motions and latent heat transfer.
Ocean-Atmosphere interactions are most intense (strong coupling) in the tropics.

3. The Tropics

4. Pressure and Winds

5. Circulation around Highs and Lows & Re-distribution of Heat

6. Extratropical Circulation – Planetary Waves

7. Extropical Dynamics – Frontogenesis

8. Ocean-Surface Conditions Depend on Latitude, Temperature, and Salinity
Fig. 6-14, p. 167
Tropic of Cancer
Equator
Tropic of Capricorn
Salinity
Temperature
Latitude
North
South
Figure 6.14: Averaged surface temperature and salinity for the world ocean. As you would expect, temperatures are lowest in the polar regions and highest near the equator. Heavy rainfall in the equatorial regions “freshens” the ocean near the equator, whereas hot and dry conditions near the tropic lines (Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer) result in higher surface salinity in those areas.

9. Mid Ocean Average Surface Salinity

10. Table 6-3, p. 166

11. Sea-surface temperatures during Northern Hemisphere summer
Sea-surface average salinities in parts per thousand (‰).
Figure 6.16: Sea-surface average salinities in parts per thousand (‰).
Fig. 6-16, p. 168

12. The Ocean Is Stratified by Density
two samples of water can have the same density at different combinations of temperature and salinity!
Figure 6.17: The complex relationship among the temperature, salinity, and density of seawater. Note that two samples of water can have the same density at different combinations of temperature and salinity. (Source: From G. P. Kuiper, ed., The Earth as a Planet, © The University of Chicago Press. Reprinted by permission.)
Fig. 6-17, p. 169

13. The Ocean Is Stratified into Three Density Zones by Temperature and Salinity
The surface zone or surface layer or mixed layer
The pycnocline, or thermocline or halocline
The deep ocean (~ 80% of the ocean is below the surface zone

14. 5 10 15 20 25
Polar
Tropical
2,000
Temperate
1,000
4,000
6,000
Depth (m)
8,000
Depth (ft)
3,000
10,000 40 50 60 70
Temperature (°F)
Temperature (°C)
Typical temperature profiles at polar, tropical, and middle (temperate) latitudes. Note that polar waters lack a thermocline.

15. Water Transmits Blue Light More Efficiently Than Red
most of the ocean lies in complete blackness

16. Major Constituents = [] > 1 part per million Na+ Sodium
Dissolved salts
Major constituents and trace elements
Conservative/nonconservative constituents
Major Constituents = [] > 1 part per million
Na+ Sodium
Cl- Chloride
SO4- Sulfate
Mg2+ Magnesium
Ca2+ Calcium
K+ Potassium
86 %
99 %
Trace Elements = [] < 1 part per million

17. Gases Distribution with depth
Photosynthesis removes CO2 and produces O2 at the surface
Respiration produces CO2 and removes O2 at all depths
Compensation depth (Photosynthesis = Respiration)
CO O2
photosynthesis
respiration

18. Oxygen and CO2 profiles O2 Concentrations Photosynthesis
Bottom water enrichment
CO2 Concentrations
Direct solution of gas from the atmosphere
Respiration of marine organisms
Oxidation (decomposition) of organic matter
oxygen minimum

19. Surface Currents Are Driven by the Winds
A combination of four forces – surface winds, the sun’s heat, the Coriolis effect, and gravity – circulates the ocean surface clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, forming gyres.
The North Atlantic gyre, a series of four interconnecting currents with different flow characteristics and temperatures.

20. The Ekman spiral and the mechanism by which it operates.
Surface Currents Flow around the Periphery of Ocean Basins
The Ekman spiral and the mechanism by which it operates.

21. Consider the North Atlantic.
Surface Currents Flow around the Periphery of Ocean Basins
Consider the North Atlantic.
The surface is raised through wind motion and Ekman transport to form a low hill. The westward-moving water at B ‘feels’ a balanced pull from two forces: the one due to Coriolis effect (which would turn the water to the right) and the one due to the pressure gradient, driven by gravity (which would turn it to the left).
The hill is formed by Ekman transport. Water turns clockwise (inward) to form the dome, then descends, depressing the thermocline.

22. Hydrostatic Pressure:
p = -rgz
z = depth
g = grav. Acc.
r = density of seawater
PGF per Unit Mass:
1/r x dp/dx = g x tan(q)

23. In oceanography, dynamic topography refers to the topography of the sea surface related to the dynamics of its own flow. In hydrostatic equilibrium, the surface of the ocean would have no topography, but due the ocean currents, its maximum dynamic topography is on the order of two meters
Dynamics: The forces and motions that characterize a system

24. Seawater Flows in Six Great Surface Circuits
Geostrophic gyres are gyres in balance between the pressure gradient and the Coriolis effect. Of the six great currents in the world’s ocean, five are geostrophic gyres. Note the western boundary currents in this map.

25. Boundary Currents Have Different Characteristics
Western boundary currents – These are narrow, deep, warm, fast currents found at the western boundaries of ocean basins.
The Gulf Stream
The Japan Current
The Brazil Current
The Agulhas Current
The Eastern Australian Current
Eastern boundary currents – These currents are cold, shallow and broad, and their boundaries are not well defined.
The Canary Current
The Benguela Current
The California Current
The West Australian Current
The Peru Current

26. Boundary Currents Have Different Characteristics
The general surface circulation of the North Atlantic.
Unit for measuring
flow rates (or volume transported by ocean currents):
sverdrups
1 sv = 1 million cubic meters of water per second

27. Boundary Currents Have Different Characteristics
Eddy formation
The western boundary of the Gulf Stream is usually distinct, marked by abrupt changes in water temperature, speed, and direction.
(a) Meanders (eddies) form at this boundary as the Gulf Stream leaves the U.S. coast at Cape Hatteras. The meanders can pinch off (b) and eventually become isolated cells of warm water between the Gulf Stream and the coast (c). Likewise, cold cells can pinch off and become entrained in the Gulf Stream itself (d). (C = cold water, W = warm water; blue = cold, red = warm.)

28. Vertical Movement of Water
Wind induced vertical circulation is vertical movement induced by wind-driven horizontal movement of water.
Upwelling is the upward motion of water. This motion brings cold, nutrient rich water towards the surface.
Downwelling is downward motion of water. It supplies the deeper ocean with dissolved gases.

29. Consider: West and East Winds

30. Nutrient-Rich Water Rises near the Equator
Equatorial upwelling.
The South Equatorial Current, especially in the Pacific, straddles the geographical equator. Water north of the equator veers to the right (northward), and water to the south veers to the left (southward). Surface water therefore diverges, causing upwelling. Most of the upwelled water comes from the area above the equatorial undercurrent, at depths of 100 meters or less.

32. Thermohaline Flow and Surface Flow: The Global Heat Connection
The global pattern of deep circulation resembles a vast “conveyor belt” that carries surface water to the depths and back again. Begin with the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water north of Iceland, which flows south through the Atlantic and then flows over (and mixes with) deep water formed near Antarctica. The combined mass circumnavigates Antarctica and then moves north into the Indian and Pacific ocean basins. Diffuse upwelling in all of the ocean returns some of this water to the surface. Water in the conveyor gradually warms and mixes upward to be returned to the North Atlantic by surface circulation.

33. Water Masses May Converge, Fall, Travel across the Seabed, and Slowly Rise
A model of thermocline circulation caused by heating in lower latitudes and cooling in higher latitudes. The thermocline at middle and low latitudes is “held up” by the slow upward movement of cold water.
The water layers and deep circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. Arrows indicate the direction of water movement. Convergence zones are areas where water masses approach one another.

35. The Arctic Sea:
Relatively enclosed basin (connection to the Pacific through the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic through the Greenland and Norwegian Seas)
Enclosed nature influences ice cover
Circulation: was originally deduced from ice flows and drifting ships, supplemented with direct current measurements and geostrophic calculations

39. Other Major Current Systems

40. Keep In Mind: Currents To Know: Coriolis Force on the Equator is zero
Coriolis Force by 0.5o influences flow of water
Currents To Know:
North Equatorial Current (NEC)
South Equatorial Current (SEC)
Equatorial Counter Current (ECC)
Equatorial Under Current (EUC)

41. Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) & Eastward Directed Pressure Gradient
Wind driven water from the surface mixed layer piled on the western side of the basin
Wind stress balances the pressure gradient (Coriolis Force ~= 0 at equator)
Adjustment (depression) of the thermocline on the western end
Baroclinic conditions at depth drive a jet-like current eastward eventually balance by friction (eddy viscosity)

42. Waves: the ocean can respond to the winds in distant places by means of large-scale disturbances that travel as waves.
Barotropic: surface waves
Baroclinic: density surface (thermocline)
Rossby (Planetary Waves)
Kelvin

43. Examples of barotropic and baroclinic waves propagating through the ocean
Most tides are barotropic ‘Kelvin’ waves
Think about what would happen if the wind stress was dramatically reduced or changed directions in the case of the Asian Monsoon

44. Kelvin Waves
Travel eastward along the equator as a double wave ‘equatorial wave guide’
Travel along coasts (coast on right in the NH and on the left in the SH)
Balance between pressure gradient force and coriolis force.

45. Kelvin Waves
Surface equatorial kelvin waves travel ~200 m/s
Rossby radius of deformation L = c/f
High latitudes smaller eddies closely trapped to the coast (increase in planetary vorticity)
Low latitudes larger radius

46. Kelvin waves in the thermocline can have dramatic effects, particularly in low latitudes where the mixed surface layer is thin.
Northward migration of ITCZ in western Atlantic generates disturbance that propagates eastward
Splits into two coastal Kelvin waves when hits the eastern boundary
The region of the disturbance where the thermocline bulges upward cold nutrient rich sub-thermocline water can reach the surface
4-6 week travel time

47. Rossby Waves:
Propagate from east to west across basin
Travel along lines of latitude
Move slower than Kelvin waves
Conservation of Potential Vorticity
Example: Waves in the jet-stream

48. ENSO: El Nino – Southern Oscillation
“Interest in the phenomenon of El Nino goes back to the mid-19th century but it was the El Nino event of that stimulated large-scale research into climatic fluctuations, which began to be seen as a result of the interaction between atmosphere and ocean.”

49. El Nino events are perturbations of the ocean-atmosphere system
Disturbance – a depression in the thermocline accompanied by a slight rise in sea-level propagates eastwards along the Equator as a pulse or series of pulses (Kelvin Waves)