What is a wind driven current?

What is a wind driven current?

Wind driven circulation describes the process in which winds moving along the surface of the ocean push the water in their direction and create currents near the surface. This means that water is pushed by winds, but as it is pushed, it is still deflected by Earth’s rotation and will rotate.

What are wind driven surface currents called?

Wind Driven Surface Currents: Gyres Background.

What are wind driven currents called quizlet?

Surface currents; are wind-driven movements of water at or near the ocean’s surface, and thermohaline currents; are the slow deep density-driven currents that affect the vast bulk of seawater beneath the pycnocline.

What is a wind current called?

Ocean water moves in two directions: horizontally and vertically. Horizontal movements are referred to as currents, while vertical changes are called upwellings or downwellings. This abiotic system is responsible for the transfer of heat, variations in biodiversity, and Earth’s climate system.

What is wind-driven use of ocean water?

… define two circulation types: (1) wind-driven circulation forced by wind stress on the sea surface, inducing a momentum exchange, and (2) thermohaline circulation driven by the variations in water density imposed at the sea surface by exchange of ocean heat and water with the atmosphere, inducing a buoyancy exchange.

Is thermohaline circulation driven by wind?

Winds drive ocean currents in the upper 100 meters of the ocean’s surface. These deep-ocean currents are driven by differences in the water’s density, which is controlled by temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline). This process is known as thermohaline circulation.

Which ocean current is the strongest and fastest ocean current in the world?

Gulf Stream
Gulf Stream Velocity. The Gulf Stream is the fastest ocean current in the world with peak velocities near 2m/s. Shown to the left are velocity profiles across the Gulf Stream at the Straits of Florida and Cape Hatteras. In both sections the Gulf Stream is flowing into the page.

What is the difference between eastern and western boundary currents?

To move the same volume of water through each side, western boundary currents are faster, deeper, and narrower than eastern boundary currents. In the same way, western boundary currents are not only faster, but also deeper than eastern boundary currents, as they move the same volume through a narrower space.

What is wind-driven rain?

Wind-driven rain damage, regardless of the cause, is a covered peril like wind or lightning, which may have caused an opening in which rain has entered and caused water damage to the home or personal property. You may have a separate Wind and Hail Deductible on your property policy.

What are the three movement of ocean water?

Introduction. Ocean water is constantly in motion: north-south, east-west, alongshore, and vertically. Seawater motions are the result of waves, tides, and currents (Figure below).

How is wind driven current different from counter current?

The difference between the two scenarios is that in the Keys, the fish are orienting around deep ocean currents, and off Tampa, it’s a wind-driven current on the Florida shelf. The surface flow is the same direction as the wind which called wind-driven current. The bottom flow is counter current.

Is the Southern Ocean a wind driven current?

The Southern Ocean contains a large, wind-driven current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which carries approximately 170 × 10 6 m 3 of water eastward around Antarctica within multiple filamented jets.

Which is the most vigorous wind driven circulation?

thermohaline circulation. In thermohaline circulation Wind-driven circulation, which is strongest in the surface layer of the ocean, is the more vigorous of the two and is configured as large gyres that dominate an ocean region.

When does the current of the wind change?

The wind-driven current also changes on a diurnal cycle, and Fig. 2 shows the current profile observed during midafternoon on the fourth day shown in Fig. 1.