How do ocean currents affect weather

Those take on the order of weeks to months to change. But that water rushes eastward in a matter of months and helps to warm up the eastern Pacific and change weather patterns around the world.

You have trade winds at low latitudes that are blowing from east to west and then again at high latitudes you have the westerlies, and so you have water flowing north from near the equator and then also water flowing south from the higher latitudes, and they carry with them plastic and garbage.

Those currents actually concentrate the garbage in garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific. There's a similar one in all the oceans. And in fact do search and rescue when people are lost at sea, and a big part of that is predicting the ocean currents and we're pretty good at doing that in real time in the surface.

There are still very mysterious things about the ocean currents that we don't understand, however. I'm part of a program called Argo which is a program that is seeding the ocean with 4, robotic floats and they drift down at about six-tenths of a mile deep for day periods, and we can get a good sense of what the ocean currents look like down there. And there are these fantastic things that pop out that we had no idea were there. Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast.

Francesca Paris adapted it for the web. Skip to main content. Close close Donate. Salinity can be as important as temperature in determining density of seawater in some regions such as the western tropical Pacific and the far North Atlantic. Rain reduces the salinity, especially in regions of very heavy rain. Some tropical areas get 3, to 5, millimeters of rain each year.

Evaporation increases salinity because as evaporation occurs, salt is left behind thus making surface water denser. Evaporation in the tropics averages 2, millimeters per year. This denser saltier water sinks into the ocean contributing to the global circulation patterns and mixing.

Ocean salinity measurements have been few and infrequent, and in many places salinity has remained unmeasured. Remotely sensed salinity measurements hold the promise of greatly improving our ocean models.

This is the challenge of project Aquarius, a NASA mission scheduled to launch in , which will enable us to further refine our understanding of the ocean-climate connection. Life in the ocean consumes and releases large quantities of carbon dioxide. Across Earth's oceans, tiny marine plants called phytoplankton use chlorophyll to capture sunlight during photosynthesis and use the energy to produce sugars.

Phytoplankton are the basis of the ocean food web, and they play a significant role in Earth's climate, since they draw down carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, at the same rate as land plants. About half of the oxygen we breathe arises from photosynthesis in the ocean. Because of their role in the ocean's biological productivity and their impact on climate, scientists want to know how much phytoplankton the oceans contain, where they are located, how their distribution is changing with time, and how much photosynthesis they perform.

They gather this information by using satellites to observe chlorophyll as an indicator of the number, or biomass, of phytoplankton cells. If the ratio of blue to green is low for an area of the ocean surface, then there is more phytoplankton present. This relationship works over a very wide range of concentrations, from less than 0. Learn about this image. Climate Variability The ocean is a significant influence on Earth's weather and climate.

This diagram shows the relationship between physical and biological oceanography and climate variability. Heat transport and ocean circulation are key factors between physical oceanography and climate variability. Biological oceanography impacts climate through the biological pump. Together, air-sea gas fluxes and penetrative solar radiation are feedbacks between physical and biological oceanography processes that ultimately influence climate. This image taken on Jan.

QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth's oceans. In recent years, the ability to detect and track severe storms has been dramatically enhanced by the advent of weather satellites. Data from the SeaWinds scatterometer is augmenting traditional satellite images of clouds by providing direct measurements of surface winds to compare with the observed cloud patterns in an effort to better determine a hurricane's location, direction, structure, and strength.

Specifically, these wind data are helping meteorologists to more accurately identify the extent of gale-force winds associated with a storm, while supplying inputs to numerical models that provide advanced warning of high waves and flooding. This is a false color illustration of wave height off the east coast of the United Stated on September 15, shows a significant increase in wave height to over 5 meters beneath Hurricane Isabel. Sea-surface height is shown relative to normal with normal shown as green.

Blue and purple areas represent heights measuring between 8 and 24 centimeters 3 and 9 inches lower than normal. Red and white areas represent higher than normal sea-surface heights and indicate warmer water. These areas are between 8 and 24 centimeters, 3 and 9 inches higher than normal. This global circuit takes up to 1, years to complete. This illustration shows the generalized model of this thermohaline circulation: 'Global Conveyor Belt. Deep water returns to the surface in the Indian and Pacific Oceans through the process of upwelling.

The warm shallow current then returns west past the Indian Ocean, round South Africa and up to the North Atlantic where the water becomes saltier and colder and sinks starting the process all over again.

The above image shows the global biosphere. Winds blowing over warm currents result in a good amount of rainfall, as they get moisture-laden. Surface currents in the ocean are driven by global wind systems that are fueled by energy from the sun. Ocean currents influence the climate and economic activities of coastal regions in the following ways: Warm currents raise the temperature along the coast, while cold currents drop the temperature along the coast. The light upper layers of water are forced to move towards the Poles where they get cooled.

Currents influence the climate of the costal regions. This determines the agricultural and hence all other economic activities of the region.

Provide at least three examples. Ocean currents influence climate because the currents are major redistributors of heat and energy throughout the globe. Warm currents such as the Gulf Stream cause regions that would normally be cold to be warmer.

Cold currents cause the air above them to be cooler. Surface currents affect climate by moving cold and warm water around the globe. In general, currents carry warm water from the tropics toward the poles and bring cold water back toward the equator.

A surface current warms or cools the air above it, influencing the climate of the land near the coast. Surface currents are created by three things: global wind patterns, the rotation of the Earth, and the shape of the ocean basins. Surface currents are extremely important because they distribute heat around the planet and are a major factor influencing climate around the globe.