UCSD ESYS 10 Introduction to Environmental Systems Winter 2006 February 9

Home page

Reading: Chapter 5 (Ocean Circulation)

Lecture: Ocean Circulation (click here for powerpoint presentation)

Problems: ozone problems due next Tuesday, Feb. 14. Chapter 17 Rev. problems 1, 4, 5, 9; Critical thinking problem 1

Problems from Chapter 5: (my apologies for not having this here prior to Feb. 23): Rev. problems 4, 5, 11 and critical thinking problem 1

Case study on ozone due Feb. 14.

Mid-term Feb. 14

---

Overview of ocean circulation: temperature, salinity, and density

Sea level anomalies and ocean circulation

Surface circulation: Wind-driven flow

MICOM Atlantic Basin Simulation
TOPEX/POSEIDON Global Ocean Circulation (U. Texas)

Ekman effect: Convergence and Divergence

Fridtjof Nansen: Man of many facets (Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Wind-driven circulation and the Ekman Balance (Chereskin, UCSD)

Upwelling and Downwelling

Sea surface temperatures associated with upwelling in the California Current System

Geostrophic Flow and Boundary Currents

Sea surface topography example

Circulation examples: El Nio

El Nino Theme Page (NOAA/PMEL)

Salinity
Why is the ocean salty? (USGS)

Thermohaline Circulation: currents due to density differences

Density of Ocean Water (UCAR)
World Ocean Atlas 2001 Figures (NOAA)
Deep Water Circulation (USC)
What happens if thermohaline circulation shuts off? (Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia)

---

Additional images

(Figure 2.11: Time-series for 1948 to 1998 of ocean heat content anomalies in the upper 300 m for the two hemispheres and the global ocean. Note that 1.5 x 1022 J equals 1 watt-year-m-2 averaged over the entire surface of the earth. Vertical lines through each yearly estimate are ± one standard error (Levitus et al., 2000b). (From the IPCC 2001 report)

---

Last modification Feb. 9 2006

email: Lynne Talley