Sound is sometimes used to study the ocean's interior. For example, the speed of sound in the ocean can be used to measure the temperature between the source and the receiver.
The flow of ocean currents follows predictable patterns governed by a variety of physical factors. For surface currents, which include water flow horizontally in the upper four hundred meters of the ocean, wind is the primary driving force. For deep...
Given the importance of ocean currents in the marine environment, oceanographers have tried for years to accurately measure them. Advances in current meters and acoustic technology have made the process easier, but the task of measuring currents rem...
Efforts to measure salinity have long been a fundamental part of chemical oceanography. At one time, this was done by simply weighing the salt. Then, for years, salinity was determined based on the concentration of chloride. Today, salinity is measu...
Thermohaline circulation is driven by differences in temperature and salinity, as opposed to circulation driven by wind. Understanding patterns of water movement may be crucial to better understanding global climate and climate change.
Obtaining accurate salinity measurements is vitally important because salt, along with temperature, has a significant impact on the density of seawater. And this, in turn, greatly affects ocean structure and circulation.
El Nino is marked by the appearance from time to time of warm water in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. The end result of the evaporative process that follows is excessive rainfall.
A tracer is a property or substance that can be used to track the movement of individual water masses. While the utility of specific tracers varies according to the locale and circumstance, tracers as a group provide a rich source of information ab...
While tracers have proven immensely valuable as tools with which to monitor and analyze ocean circulation, the sheer size of the world ocean presents an enormous data-gathering challenge. Many oceanographers believe the solution lies in profiling sy...
Water masses are layers of water distinguished by a particular temperature and salinity. Understanding how water masses form and move around is critical in understanding global climate.