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Chapter 7 — Transcript

by Jeffrey Ashley · 8,792 words · 1,345 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00Hi there, I'm Dr. Jeff Ashley and
  2. 0:02welcome to chapter 7 which deals with o
  3. 0:05ocean
  4. 0:08circulation. As you may recall in the
  5. 0:10last chapter we discussed what was going
  6. 0:12on in the atmosphere mainly that lower
  7. 0:15layer that we call the troposphere where
  8. 0:17our weather happens and we mentioned
  9. 0:19that there are certain cells both in the
  10. 0:21northern hemisphere and the southern
  11. 0:23hemis hemisphere and we went over what's
  12. 0:26driving that. Those were pretty much
  13. 0:28north south or south north movements in
  14. 0:30these circulation cells. We're going to
  15. 0:33see some similar cells that explain how
  16. 0:35the ocean at least the surface waters of
  17. 0:37the ocean move. So this chapter deals
  18. 0:41with ocean currents and most of the
  19. 0:43ocean currents that we'll be discussing
  20. 0:45are ocean currents that are moving that
  21. 0:47top layer of ocean. Okay, previous
  22. 0:51chapters we said that there's a top
  23. 0:53layer of ocean that is less dense
  24. 0:55because of density differences and
  25. 0:58there's a bottom layer that is
  26. 1:01sequestered or sits on bottom of that
  27. 1:04top layer and we call that the deep
  28. 1:06water. So imagine the surface waters and
  29. 1:09the deep waters and they are sort of
  30. 1:11disconnected because of the density
  31. 1:12differences density based on temperature
  32. 1:15and also density based on salinity.
  33. 1:18So with this in mind, this two-layering
  34. 1:20system, a lot of this chapter deals with
  35. 1:23the movement of that top layer, the
  36. 1:26surface of the ocean. And don't think
  37. 1:27it's just that little couple centimeters
  38. 1:29of the surface. It goes down meters to
  39. 1:31even a kilometer or more deep. We call
  40. 1:35these surface ocean currents. And it's
  41. 1:37just moving
  42. 1:39seawater. The transfer of heat from
  43. 1:41warmer to colder cooler areas happens
  44. 1:44because of this movement, as we're going
  45. 1:46to see in this chapter. And the movement
  46. 1:48is very similar to the major wind belts.
  47. 1:51So we talked about the westerlys and the
  48. 1:53trade winds in the last chapter. Those
  49. 1:55are the primary winds that are hitting
  50. 1:57the sea surface and enabling it to
  51. 2:00move. Ocean currents also affect coastal
  52. 2:03climates. As we mentioned before, I
  53. 2:05brought up the case of California and
  54. 2:07it's very temperate or nonvarying
  55. 2:10climate and that's due to the cold
  56. 2:12currents off that shore.
  57. 2:15We will also in this chapter discuss
  58. 2:17deep ocean currents. So rather than the
  59. 2:20surface currents, these are the deep
  60. 2:22ocean currents, cold, very dense water
  61. 2:24sitting on top of that less dense
  62. 2:26surface water. We'll get to that at the
  63. 2:28very end. Although it's important much
  64. 2:30of this chapter, as I said, are dealing
  65. 2:31with these surface currents. So again,
  66. 2:34breaking down the currents, we will
  67. 2:35primarily be discussing surface currents
  68. 2:38and they are primarily wind driven and
  69. 2:40they're primarily a horizontal motion.
  70. 2:43So imagine the two layering system of
  71. 2:45these deep ocean and the surface. Wind
  72. 2:48blows on top and it allows horizontal
  73. 2:52movement. Deep ocean currents are driven
  74. 2:54by densities uh differences caused by
  75. 2:58temperature and salinity as we saw in
  76. 3:00past chapters. However, it includes both
  77. 3:02horizontal movement and sometimes up and
  78. 3:05down or vertical
  79. 3:07movement. So how do you measure surface
  80. 3:10currents? Early oceanographers just used
  81. 3:13to throw bottles with notes in them,
  82. 3:15message in a bottle, and that's how they
  83. 3:16did it. And it worked. It allowed people
  84. 3:19to piece together how these surface
  85. 3:21currents were moving, in what direction,
  86. 3:23and even at what
  87. 3:25velocity. Modern-day oceanographers now
  88. 3:27use equipment such as this. This is a
  89. 3:30drift current meter, and it's deployed
  90. 3:33in the sea surface of the top layers. It
  91. 3:35has some buoyancy compartments that will
  92. 3:38keep it afloat. As currents pass by,
  93. 3:41this quadrant moves and sends the
  94. 3:44information on the velocity of the
  95. 3:46current and also its direction.
  96. 3:49Sometimes information on surface
  97. 3:50currents are garnered by mistakes. And
  98. 3:53your book is a gives a couple of these
  99. 3:55examples. One famous one was a cargo
  100. 3:58ship that was carrying Nike shoes. The
  101. 4:00cargo containers were displaced into the
  102. 4:03ocean, the surface of the ocean by a
  103. 4:06storm. And eventually those cargo
  104. 4:09containers opened up and released a
  105. 4:11whole bunch of Nike shoes. Well, people
  106. 4:13began to uh find these shoes on the
  107. 4:16shores of British Columbia and also
  108. 4:18Alaska and also down the Pacific North
  109. 4:21Coast to Oregon and even further. And
  110. 4:23this allowed oceanographers once people
  111. 4:25collected the shoes and identified them
  112. 4:28to begin to understand the surface
  113. 4:30currents in this area. This goes back to
  114. 4:331990. So information was still garnered
  115. 4:36from not so much a message in a bottle
  116. 4:38or a drift current meter, but by
  117. 4:40accidents like this. Your book also
  118. 4:43gives some other examples of these
  119. 4:44accidents. And one of them was uh
  120. 4:47Chinese toys, little plastic toys.
  121. 4:50Imagine rubber duckies or the like. And
  122. 4:52again, finding these things allowed
  123. 4:54people to piece together what these
  124. 4:56ocean currents were doing as far as
  125. 4:58their direction and also their
  126. 5:00velocities or the speed. So, a really
  127. 5:03great figure here. And remember that we
  128. 5:06said the sea surface has the ability to
  129. 5:08bulge at higher elevations or lower
  130. 5:11elevations than sea level. So, the red
  131. 5:13colors are areas that have a higher than
  132. 5:15normal sea level. So they're like the
  133. 5:18bulgy layers, couple
  134. 5:20centimeters, purple, magenta areas, and
  135. 5:23the green areas are a little lower than
  136. 5:25sea level. Placed on this map now is the
  137. 5:28white arrows. And the arrows indicate
  138. 5:31the flow of the currents, the surface
  139. 5:33currents, and also the velocity with
  140. 5:36longer arrows indicating the faster flow
  141. 5:39rates. So you can just begin to see what
  142. 5:41we're going to talk about. But a lot of
  143. 5:43the fast flowing movement of the surface
  144. 5:45waters is happening here around the
  145. 5:47equator. You can see these smaller
  146. 5:49vectors and the direction. So
  147. 5:52smaller, you can also see smaller arrows
  148. 5:55which depict a smaller velocity in the
  149. 5:57surface currents and their
  150. 6:00locations. Another way to measure
  151. 6:02currents and these are great ways to
  152. 6:05measure the deep sea current. So that's
  153. 6:07that bottom cold dense water and how
  154. 6:09that's moving either vertically as we
  155. 6:12said up and down or horizontally is
  156. 6:15using chemical
  157. 6:16tracers. So what are chemical tracers?
  158. 6:19They are humanly inputed tracers. Uh we
  159. 6:23know when they were formed and we can
  160. 6:25look at their radioactive decay or
  161. 6:27actual their presence and determine
  162. 6:30where they were deployed first of all
  163. 6:31and where they end up. So you can
  164. 6:33measure deep sea water uh for tridium or
  165. 6:36CFC's and measure their abundance and
  166. 6:39piece together the deep sea currents.
  167. 6:41Tridium is interesting because it was
  168. 6:43released uh unnaturally from nuclear
  169. 6:46bomb tests in the 1950s and60s in the
  170. 6:49Pacific Ocean. So it ended up in the
  171. 6:52ocean and now we can look at
  172. 6:53concentrations and infer ah we find a
  173. 6:56level of tridium in this area that must
  174. 6:58have originated from the source and we
  175. 7:00can determine the velocity and the
  176. 7:02movement of these deep sea currents
  177. 7:04equally. So chlorofluorocarbons were
  178. 7:06used as primarily propellants like in
  179. 7:09hairspray. They were banned and they are
  180. 7:12still globally ubiquitous found
  181. 7:14everywhere. These are the culprits of
  182. 7:16these ozone depletion. So primarily they
  183. 7:19were banned because of ozone depletion.
  184. 7:21It worked. We maintained some of the
  185. 7:23ozone layer that we were losing back in
  186. 7:25the 80s and 90s and they can be used as
  187. 7:28deep sea tracers as well to look at the
  188. 7:30movement of the deep sea ocean. Another
  189. 7:33way to do this and this is staggering
  190. 7:35when you look at the number of dots on
  191. 7:37this map. The number of dots represents
  192. 7:39the deployment of what we call Argo and
  193. 7:42Argo are floating and sometimes
  194. 7:44nonflating measuring devices. They're
  195. 7:47free drifting. They can have the ability
  196. 7:50to de go deep down uh to measure the
  197. 7:54subsurface currents as well and even a
  198. 7:56special type now that goes very deep
  199. 7:59down thousands of meters. So these
  200. 8:02primarily are floating measuring devices
  201. 8:05kind of like the current meter that we
  202. 8:07saw before. They are satellite
  203. 8:10connected. So they're dumping their data
  204. 8:12live and we get a really extremely
  205. 8:16robust system of measuring these
  206. 8:18currents throughout the
  207. 8:20world. This is a special kind of Argo.
  208. 8:24Um and Argo is just this device. Instead
  209. 8:27of measuring the sea surface
  210. 8:28temperatures, they are deployed deep
  211. 8:31down. So they descend at a cruising
  212. 8:32depth at around uh 10 cm per second.
  213. 8:35They can go into that cold and dense
  214. 8:38area, that deep current and they can
  215. 8:41then follow the direction and also
  216. 8:43measure the velocity of that moving
  217. 8:45water body very very deep down and then
  218. 8:48they pop up and then through satellites
  219. 8:52they can dump their data and we can
  220. 8:55infer a lot about the movement of that
  221. 8:56deep
  222. 8:57sea. Let's get back to surface currents
  223. 9:00because I said most of this chapter
  224. 9:02we're going to be discussing it. It's
  225. 9:04very important in determining a whole
  226. 9:06bunch of things as we'll see. But
  227. 9:08surface currents are really proposed by
  228. 9:10a frictional drag be between the wind
  229. 9:13and the ocean. Uh so it's primarily wind
  230. 9:16driven. How are we moving the surface of
  231. 9:18the currents? Just blow on your coffee.
  232. 9:20So you blow on your coffee and it moves
  233. 9:23the surface, right? Same thing's
  234. 9:25happening here. The wind is that blowing
  235. 9:27breath, right? And the ocean is your
  236. 9:29coffee. But primarily that's what we're
  237. 9:31going for. Although there's a whole
  238. 9:32bunch of things that sort of uh tweak
  239. 9:36that concept as we'll see. So it's
  240. 9:39primarily wind but there's other
  241. 9:41factors. You've got wind but then you
  242. 9:44have obstructions like continents. So
  243. 9:45we'll see how that infers the pathway
  244. 9:48and the velocity. Once a sea surface
  245. 9:51hits a current uh continent. How is it
  246. 9:53going to be moved in a direction and how
  247. 9:56is the velocity changing? Also, gravity
  248. 10:00to an extent. Water molecules are under
  249. 10:02the influence of gravity just like
  250. 10:04everything else. So, that has something
  251. 10:05to do with the movement as well.
  252. 10:07Frictional forces, we'll get to that in
  253. 10:09a minute. So, we'll see these frictional
  254. 10:11forces
  255. 10:12shortly. And as well, because these are
  256. 10:15large scale movements of matter, water,
  257. 10:19they are under the influence of the
  258. 10:20corololis effect. And just to remind you
  259. 10:23that coriololis is the deflection of
  260. 10:26large scale masses of stuff like water
  261. 10:28or air masses. And the rule, remember
  262. 10:30the rule, in the northern hemisphere,
  263. 10:32you're getting a deflection to the
  264. 10:34right. In the southern hemisphere, you
  265. 10:36get deflection to the left. And we're
  266. 10:38really going to see how that plays out
  267. 10:39in the ocean
  268. 10:41circulation. So, the movement of these
  269. 10:43surface currents is largely driven by
  270. 10:46wind and adding in a couple other
  271. 10:48factors as we'll see. But what happens
  272. 10:50is through wind we develop these things
  273. 10:54called gys. They are large circular
  274. 10:56loops of moving water. Let's go to a map
  275. 10:59and check them
  276. 11:00out. So here we have a map of the
  277. 11:03southern and the northern hemisphere,
  278. 11:05but we're zeroing in on the Atlantic
  279. 11:07Ocean. So the North Atlantic is here and
  280. 11:10the South Atlantic here. Look at the
  281. 11:14arrows that are purple in nature because
  282. 11:16they are showing the movement of the
  283. 11:18surface waters. And you can clearly see
  284. 11:21this clockwise rotation called a gy in
  285. 11:24the North Atlantic. And you can clearly
  286. 11:26see an
  287. 11:28anti-lockwise
  288. 11:29or counterclockwise movement in the
  289. 11:32southern hemisphere. These ocean surface
  290. 11:36currents, these gys are primarily wind
  291. 11:38driven. And remember the chapter when we
  292. 11:40discussed the prevailing westerlys and
  293. 11:43the trade winds either the northeast
  294. 11:45trade winds or the southeast trade winds
  295. 11:47and their movement and deflection to the
  296. 11:49right in the northern hemisphere and
  297. 11:51left in the southern hemisphere. They're
  298. 11:54primarily responsible for driving this
  299. 11:56circular motion of the surface
  300. 12:00currents. What we have in each one of
  301. 12:02these gys and these are just two
  302. 12:04examples of gys but there are more.
  303. 12:06We'll switch to the other ones in a
  304. 12:08moment. So think of these gys. Yes,
  305. 12:10they're represented as circles, but I
  306. 12:12like to think of them as boxes. Boxes
  307. 12:15with four sides. And those four sides
  308. 12:17represent different currents that
  309. 12:20represent the entire gy, but we label
  310. 12:22them differently. So here that northern
  311. 12:25current is called the northern boundary
  312. 12:28current. Here that current is the
  313. 12:31southern boundary current. Let's go back
  314. 12:33to this gy here. This is the western
  315. 12:36part of the Atlantic. So it's called a
  316. 12:38western boundary current and equally if
  317. 12:41you go to the other side right here this
  318. 12:43is an eastern boundary current and the
  319. 12:46one that is near the equator is called
  320. 12:48the equatorial current. Okay so there's
  321. 12:51the equatorial current in this gy
  322. 12:53equatorial current here western boundary
  323. 12:56current. We've got
  324. 12:58the southern boundary current and we've
  325. 13:01got the eastern current. So each one of
  326. 13:03these
  327. 13:04gys and we'll see more of these
  328. 13:06worldwide can be labeled in the sort of
  329. 13:09this box figure with the appropriate
  330. 13:13uh
  331. 13:14directional
  332. 13:15boundary. Okay. So here we see again
  333. 13:18worldwide we zoomed into the Atlantic in
  334. 13:22the northern hemisphere and the movement
  335. 13:24here of this gy counterclockwise in the
  336. 13:26southern hemisphere. But we can see
  337. 13:28these gys exist in this Pacific Ocean
  338. 13:31here. we see a large gy right. This
  339. 13:34would be the western boundary, the
  340. 13:36northern boundary, the eastern boundary,
  341. 13:38and the equatorial uh boundary. Here we
  342. 13:41have another gy again counterclockwise
  343. 13:43in the southern ocean. Here's the
  344. 13:45equatorial boundary, the western
  345. 13:47boundary because it's in the western
  346. 13:49Pacific, the southern boundary, and the
  347. 13:52eastern boundary here. So, as long as
  348. 13:55you know your north, south, east, and
  349. 13:56west, you've got the labeling systems of
  350. 13:58this four-part current system that makes
  351. 14:01up these gys. No, it's not like a box,
  352. 14:03but again, I like to remember it as such
  353. 14:05to remember the lab labels. So, eastern
  354. 14:09boundary, western boundary, northern,
  355. 14:11southern boundary, and equatorial those
  356. 14:13are sort of generic components of a gy.
  357. 14:17When we go to an actual map like this,
  358. 14:19you see they get special names. So we
  359. 14:21said this was the western boundary
  360. 14:23current in the uh northern hemisphere of
  361. 14:26the Pacific Ocean. That's called the
  362. 14:28Corisho uh current. Down here we have
  363. 14:32the California current. We spoke of this
  364. 14:33before. If you're going swimming in
  365. 14:35August off the co coast of California,
  366. 14:38it's going to be cold. It's a cold water
  367. 14:40current coming down from the northern
  368. 14:42part heading back to the equator. So on
  369. 14:44this map too, you see that red indicates
  370. 14:46these warm currents and the blue
  371. 14:49represents the colder currents. And it
  372. 14:51kind of makes sense if you're traveling
  373. 14:53on the equator, enriching that current
  374. 14:55in warm water. The Gulf Stream we know
  375. 14:58is a warm current heading up, but as it
  376. 15:00heads up, we cool these currents down,
  377. 15:03but they return on their eastern
  378. 15:05boundary towards the equator, but
  379. 15:06they're cold. And again, this was the
  380. 15:08moderation of the continental climate
  381. 15:11right offshore here, which I mentioned
  382. 15:12before as well. The Ecman spiral is one
  383. 15:15of the coolest things I think in uh this
  384. 15:17chapter. And in oceanography, surface
  385. 15:19currents move at an angle to the wind.
  386. 15:21So, if you go back to my little analogy
  387. 15:24of blow over your coffee to cool it, it
  388. 15:27looks like the coffee the surface of the
  389. 15:28coffee is moving in the direction of
  390. 15:30your blow. So, you would think if the
  391. 15:32wind's blowing, aren't the surfaces
  392. 15:34going to move in that direction? Ecman a
  393. 15:36scientist said no that they actually
  394. 15:39blow at an angle to the wind. The Ecman
  395. 15:41spiral describes the speed and also more
  396. 15:44importantly I think the direction of the
  397. 15:46seawater flow at different depths. So
  398. 15:49we'll take a look at a video because
  399. 15:50it's much better in action and in
  400. 15:52animation. But each successive layer
  401. 15:55moves increasingly to the right in the
  402. 15:57northern hemisphere, increasingly to the
  403. 16:00left in the southern hemisphere. Let's
  404. 16:02put this in motion. As wind moves across
  405. 16:05the surface of the ocean, friction
  406. 16:07between the moving air and the surface
  407. 16:08of the water causes the water to begin
  408. 16:11to move as well. This transfer of energy
  409. 16:13through friction is how wind causes
  410. 16:15surface currents. Once water at the
  411. 16:17surface begins to move, some of the
  412. 16:19energy gets transferred to deeper
  413. 16:21layers, allowing water movement to
  414. 16:22penetrate to depths of 50 to 100 m. The
  415. 16:26details of how water behaves as energy
  416. 16:28from wind moves from the surface to
  417. 16:30depth was first investigated by Walford
  418. 16:33Ecman in 1905. He was given the idea to
  419. 16:36investigate surface currents by the
  420. 16:37Arctic explorer Freechov Nansen. While
  421. 16:40on an expedition, Nanson noticed that
  422. 16:42windb blown sea ice did not move in the
  423. 16:45same direction as the wind. Instead, it
  424. 16:47moved 20 to 40° to the right of the
  425. 16:49wind. He correctly speculated that this
  426. 16:52was due to the influence of Earth's
  427. 16:54rotation. Ecman took Nansson's idea and
  428. 16:56built a mathematical model to explain
  429. 16:58it. Ecman's model treats water as a
  430. 17:00series of layers that move independently
  431. 17:03of each other. As each layer moves, the
  432. 17:06energy from that motion can transfer
  433. 17:08from layer to layer. Consider a small
  434. 17:11vertical column of water that starts at
  435. 17:13the surface and extends towards the
  436. 17:15bottom. As energy moves from the surface
  437. 17:17to deeper layers, two things happen.
  438. 17:20First, because some energy is lost in
  439. 17:22each transfer to a deeper layer, water
  440. 17:24speed diminishes quickly with depth.
  441. 17:26Second, as the movement is transferred
  442. 17:29deeper, Corola's effect deflects each
  443. 17:32layer to the right of the one above it.
  444. 17:34This creates a spiral pattern called an
  445. 17:36ecman spiral.
  446. 17:40One result of this deflection pattern is
  447. 17:42that at depth, a small amount of water
  448. 17:44is actually moving in the completely
  449. 17:46opposite direction than the wind that
  450. 17:48started the motion in the first place.
  451. 17:50Because water movement diminishes
  452. 17:52quickly with depth, Ecman showed that
  453. 17:54the net transfer of water is at a 90°
  454. 17:56angle to wind direction. Because this is
  455. 17:59all driven by the corololis effect, the
  456. 18:01deflection is 90° to the right in the
  457. 18:03northern hemisphere and 90° to the left
  458. 18:05in the southern hemisphere.
  459. 18:07This movement of water at right angles
  460. 18:09to the direction of the prevailing winds
  461. 18:11is called ecman transport. And
  462. 18:13consistent with Nansson's observations,
  463. 18:15the water right at the surface moves 20
  464. 18:18to 40° to the right or left of the wind
  465. 18:20direction. This variability is driven by
  466. 18:22differences in how long and how
  467. 18:24consistently the wind blows. The
  468. 18:26dynamics of ecman transport contribute
  469. 18:28to some important features in the ocean
  470. 18:30environment. In coastal areas where
  471. 18:32prevailing winds blow along the coast so
  472. 18:35that net water movement is offshore, the
  473. 18:37water pushed out to sea is replaced by
  474. 18:40deeper water causing upwelling. By the
  475. 18:43way, this is assuming you're in the
  476. 18:45northern hemisphere. So, if the wind,
  477. 18:47you're stationed here, and the wind is
  478. 18:48blowing towards you, that wind is going
  479. 18:51to slosh or move that surface water 90°
  480. 18:56to the right. So, it's like slloshing it
  481. 18:59away from the coastline as depicted
  482. 19:01here. That water is sloshed away and
  483. 19:03wants to be replaced. It's replaced by
  484. 19:06the cold, nutrient-rich bottom waters
  485. 19:08that come come up. So, this is called
  486. 19:10upwelling. We're going to get back to
  487. 19:12this concept more. The upwelling of this
  488. 19:15deeper water moves nutrients to the
  489. 19:17surface, making these regions of high
  490. 19:19productivity. Wind blowing in the
  491. 19:22opposite direction pushes surface water
  492. 19:24towards the coast. Again, the caveat is
  493. 19:26he should have mentioned we're assuming
  494. 19:28you're in the northern hemisphere. This
  495. 19:30would be opposite all opposite. It would
  496. 19:33move to the left 90° if you were in the
  497. 19:36southern hemisphere. That would cause
  498. 19:37upwelling if this were southern
  499. 19:38hemisphere. As water piles up at the
  500. 19:41shore, it is forced down creating
  501. 19:43downwelling. The concentration of
  502. 19:45relatively nutrient poor surface water
  503. 19:48makes these regions less productive.
  504. 19:50Ecman driven up and downwelling are not
  505. 19:52limited to coastal environments. In the
  506. 19:54open ocean, trade winds also cause Ecman
  507. 19:57transport. Along the equator, prevailing
  508. 19:59winds blow from east to west. This
  509. 20:01causes water to move away from the
  510. 20:03equator in both the northern and
  511. 20:05southern hemispheres, creating a region
  512. 20:07of diverging currents that lowers the
  513. 20:09water level right at the equator,
  514. 20:11causing deeper water to upwell. It's
  515. 20:14almost like we've heard the parting of
  516. 20:15the Red Sea along the equator because of
  517. 20:18the winds. They're slloshing water to
  518. 20:20the right 90 degrees and to the left 90
  519. 20:23degrees depending upon what hemisphere
  520. 20:25you're in shown nicely here. It's kind
  521. 20:27of like parting that water. That water
  522. 20:30those water molecules are going in
  523. 20:31either direction and want to be replaced
  524. 20:34with something replaced by the bottom
  525. 20:36waters. So we have upwelling. Upwelling
  526. 20:38does not have to occur at a coastline.
  527. 20:40It can happen here especially in the
  528. 20:42equatorial regions in mid latitudes
  529. 20:44around 30° north and south where
  530. 20:47prevailing winds transition from
  531. 20:48easterly to westerly water piles up as
  532. 20:51the easterly and westerly winds drive
  533. 20:53surface currents towards each other.
  534. 20:55This convergence causes downwelling just
  535. 20:57like along the coast. Upwelling along
  536. 20:59the equator brings nutrient-rich water
  537. 21:01to the surface stimulating primary
  538. 21:03productivity.
  539. 21:05the so again these are interesting
  540. 21:07because they're the convergence zones of
  541. 21:10wind right so that equatorial was the
  542. 21:12wind was blowing the uh in either
  543. 21:15direction leaving an opening right and
  544. 21:18that opening is replaced by upweld water
  545. 21:21but here in the depiction we have
  546. 21:23downwelling because your winds are
  547. 21:25coming towards each other piling stuff
  548. 21:28up and that water molecule likes to
  549. 21:31thanks to gravity head down so we've got
  550. 21:33downwelling
  551. 21:35piling up of water at mid latitudes
  552. 21:37contribute to the formation of gys
  553. 21:39that's so probably all new stuff to you
  554. 21:42incredibly important for surface water
  555. 21:45movement also explains upwelling and
  556. 21:47downwelling the ecman spiral so here we
  557. 21:50have the take-home messages we saw in
  558. 21:53that video the average movement of
  559. 21:54seawater under the influence is a
  560. 21:58deflection 90° to the right if you're in
  561. 22:01the northern hemisphere and 90° to the
  562. 22:03left in the southern hemisphere. That's
  563. 22:06the net transport. And again, if you're
  564. 22:08sitting on the sea surface here, are you
  565. 22:10moving 90°? No. We saw just as Nansen
  566. 22:13saw uh 20° to like 40° movement here of
  567. 22:17ice. Or if you're on your ship and the
  568. 22:19wind's blowing this way, you're going to
  569. 22:21be going that way if you're uh just free
  570. 22:25floating. So that last video alluded to
  571. 22:28the fact if you have this giring water,
  572. 22:31that motion actually piles up water
  573. 22:33molecules and raises the sea surface
  574. 22:36towards the middle of that gy. Those
  575. 22:39surface water molecules want to flow
  576. 22:42downhill because of gravity. Also, we
  577. 22:45get a deflection in the northern
  578. 22:47atmosphere to the right thanks to
  579. 22:48corololis. So we get a balance of
  580. 22:50downhill and to the right causing this
  581. 22:54geostrophic flow around a hill. This
  582. 22:57again is a complicated thing. So I think
  583. 22:59animation and a video is warranted here.
  584. 23:02Let's watch it. Water in the oceans is
  585. 23:04in constant motion. The major surface
  586. 23:06currents are driven by energy
  587. 23:08transferred from the wind by friction.
  588. 23:10The direction water travels is
  589. 23:12determined by how the transferred wind
  590. 23:14energy interacts with corololis
  591. 23:15deflection, other currents, and
  592. 23:17geological features such as continents
  593. 23:19and island arcs. A major feature of the
  594. 23:22current systems in all of Earth's large
  595. 23:24ocean basins is a central gy. These gys
  596. 23:29move water near the surface in large
  597. 23:31roughly circular patterns around the
  598. 23:33center of each ocean basin. Given the
  599. 23:35orientation of the wind in these areas
  600. 23:37relative to the direction the currents
  601. 23:39travel, it may look as if the wind
  602. 23:41directly creates the currents. But due
  603. 23:43to the influence of the earth's
  604. 23:45rotation, the process that forms gys is
  605. 23:48more complicated. This circulation
  606. 23:50pattern is an example of geostrophic
  607. 23:52flow which is a type of movement that
  608. 23:54occurs when the forces acting on objects
  609. 23:56are so weak relative to the influence of
  610. 23:58the rotation of the earth that corololis
  611. 24:01deflection is the factor that determines
  612. 24:03the direction of motion. To understand
  613. 24:05this, it helps to start with a more
  614. 24:07familiar situation. Consider a ball
  615. 24:09sitting at the top of an incin plane.
  616. 24:11The force of gravity pulling down on the
  617. 24:13ball will cause it to roll down the
  618. 24:15plane. In this situation, the force of
  619. 24:17gravity is strong and the motion of the
  620. 24:20ball is fast relative to other forces
  621. 24:22acting on the ball, allowing the ball to
  622. 24:24roll down the plane. As expected, the
  623. 24:26dynamics change if we alter the
  624. 24:28situation so that the slope of the plane
  625. 24:30is very shallow and the ball is tiny. As
  626. 24:32the slope of the plane and the mass of
  627. 24:34the ball decrease, the force of gravity
  628. 24:36acting on the ball becomes weaker. With
  629. 24:38a small enough ball and a shallow enough
  630. 24:41plane, Coriola's deflection becomes so
  631. 24:43influential that it overwhelms the
  632. 24:46orientation of gravity's pull down the
  633. 24:48slope and the ball will actually move
  634. 24:50across the plane instead of down it.
  635. 24:52This can create some seemingly
  636. 24:54counterintuitive behavior. If instead of
  637. 24:56a plane, the ball was on a small hill,
  638. 24:58it would roll around the hill instead of
  639. 25:00down it. This is geostrophic movement or
  640. 25:03as used in fluid dynamics, geostrophic
  641. 25:06flow. It is important to understand that
  642. 25:08for this type of motion to occur, the
  643. 25:10slope has to be extremely small and be
  644. 25:12extended over a very large area like for
  645. 25:14example a large portion of an ocean
  646. 25:16basin. While the ocean surface does look
  647. 25:19flat to the unaded eye, there are hills
  648. 25:21of water in the open ocean. These hills
  649. 25:23form at mid latitudes in both
  650. 25:25hemispheres where the low latitude
  651. 25:27easterly trade winds are replaced by
  652. 25:29westerlys at higher latitudes. The
  653. 25:31surface currents created by these winds
  654. 25:33are turned 90° by corololis deflection.
  655. 25:36The resulting ecman transport drives the
  656. 25:38formation of regions of convergence
  657. 25:41where water actually piles up forming
  658. 25:43small hills. These hills of water are
  659. 25:45only about a meter in height. But this
  660. 25:47change in elevation is enough to
  661. 25:50generate a difference in pressure across
  662. 25:51the basin with the elevated region in
  663. 25:53the center at a slightly higher pressure
  664. 25:55than the surrounding area. This creates
  665. 25:58a small pressure gradient across the
  666. 26:00basin. The pressure gradient acts like
  667. 26:02the hill in the example with the ball,
  668. 26:04generating a force that pushes water
  669. 26:06down the gradient away from the center
  670. 26:07of the hill. Since the elevation
  671. 26:09difference is small and is spread across
  672. 26:11a large distance, the pressure gradient
  673. 26:13force is weak, creating conditions for
  674. 26:16geostrophic flow to occur. So rather
  675. 26:18than moving down the gradient, water
  676. 26:20flows along lines of equal pressure
  677. 26:23around the hill instead of down it. To
  678. 26:26summarize, the formation of the large
  679. 26:28ocean gy starts with trade wind-driven
  680. 26:30Ecman transport piling water in the
  681. 26:33middle of the basins. This pile of water
  682. 26:35generates a pressure gradient that
  683. 26:37pushes the water back out away from the
  684. 26:39center of the pile. Since the pressure
  685. 26:41gradient is small and spread across a
  686. 26:42large distance, the flow down the
  687. 26:44pressure gradient is deflected by the
  688. 26:46rotation of the earth and the water
  689. 26:48actually flows around the pile instead
  690. 26:50of down it. This is a steadystate
  691. 26:52situation with energy from Ecman
  692. 26:54transport in balance with the force of
  693. 26:57pressure gradient pushing back out
  694. 26:59resulting in a stable circulation of
  695. 27:01water around the gy. Yeah, that's a lot.
  696. 27:04So, it brings in this issue that we saw
  697. 27:06with the Ecman spiral, some coriololis
  698. 27:08effect and it explains this gy
  699. 27:11formation. I just want to go back to
  700. 27:14this because we're going to see it. But
  701. 27:15if you remember the video here and
  702. 27:17you're like, "Oh, why aren't these
  703. 27:19perfectly ovalshaped? Why are the
  704. 27:22vectors on the western boundary seem to
  705. 27:25be clustering together rather than not
  706. 27:28clustering together?" Right? There's
  707. 27:30more space between these vectors on the
  708. 27:32eastern boundary currents. We're going
  709. 27:34to come back to that because of the
  710. 27:36geostrophic flow. we have a buildup on
  711. 27:39the western boundaries that these
  712. 27:41vectors are all sort of clustered
  713. 27:42together more. These are higher velocity
  714. 27:45surface currents. These are lower
  715. 27:48velocity meaning these western boundary
  716. 27:50currents move faster. These move slower.
  717. 27:53So if you put this into action like
  718. 27:55here's the Gulfream. Gulfream is a
  719. 27:58pretty fast flowing surface current.
  720. 28:01When you get over here and that eastern
  721. 28:03boundary current, that cold air or cold
  722. 28:05water coming back towards the equator,
  723. 28:07it's a slowm moving current. So, this is
  724. 28:10a great depiction and we'll see this in
  725. 28:12a moment. So, just looking at this, it
  726. 28:14is really complicated. So, here we have
  727. 28:16the link to the URL that that video was
  728. 28:20I just showed, but you might want to go
  729. 28:22back to that. And there's other
  730. 28:23resources as well. Don't get bogged down
  731. 28:25on all the minute details of this. I
  732. 28:28just want you to understand the large
  733. 28:30scale things that are driving
  734. 28:32this. Okay. So, I paused that video and
  735. 28:35I went back to notify you of that
  736. 28:37western buildup. The clustering of all
  737. 28:40those vectors means that the western
  738. 28:42currents heading to the north pole
  739. 28:44heading to the south pole are much
  740. 28:46faster. They're faster and faster and
  741. 28:49they're all clustered together. They're
  742. 28:51narrower. So, they're not broad
  743. 28:53currents, but they're narrower in
  744. 28:54compared to the eastern boundary
  745. 28:56currents. They're much deeper and since
  746. 28:59they're originating from the equatorial
  747. 29:01areas, they are warm water deliverers to
  748. 29:06the poles. So they're taking that warm
  749. 29:08water from the equatorial regions and
  750. 29:10moving it very quickly and deeply to the
  751. 29:13northern parts of the hemispheres either
  752. 29:16the north pole or the south pole.
  753. 29:17Counter to that we said wow look at the
  754. 29:19eastern boundary currents they are cold
  755. 29:22because they have just been towards the
  756. 29:24polar regions in both hemispheres. So
  757. 29:26they cool down. They're delivering cold,
  758. 29:28denser water via the uh surface
  759. 29:31currents. They're relatively slow in
  760. 29:34compared to the western boundary
  761. 29:35currents. They're shallower. They don't
  762. 29:38run as deep. And they're quite broad and
  763. 29:40wide. Warm ocean currents, warm air at
  764. 29:44the coast. And we have this example of
  765. 29:47the Gulf Stream that's delivering warm
  766. 29:50water, but that also influences our
  767. 29:53climate or daily weather conditions on
  768. 29:55the coastline. They deliver warm humid
  769. 29:57air. Humid climate is usually adjoining
  770. 30:01to the land
  771. 30:02mass. Cool ocean currents cool air to
  772. 30:05the coast. Think of California. Think of
  773. 30:07Britain, right? Those are cold eastern
  774. 30:09boundary currents that are offshore. You
  775. 30:12deliver cold water, but you also
  776. 30:14influence the air above. It's usually
  777. 30:16cool, dry air, and a drier climate to
  778. 30:18the adjoining land mass. So, ocean
  779. 30:21currents do inform or influence our
  780. 30:25climate. And and here we see it. We see
  781. 30:27the warm ocean currents that are moving
  782. 30:29from east to west, delivering warm
  783. 30:32equatorial water to the western current,
  784. 30:35the western boundary current, right?
  785. 30:37that then cools off and then you form
  786. 30:40your eastern boundary cool water coming
  787. 30:43back. So it's a circular motion of water
  788. 30:45being heated up cooling down almost like
  789. 30:48a convection cell that we saw in the
  790. 30:50atmosphere but here it's happening in
  791. 30:51the surface currents. Here we see
  792. 30:54something that we saw in that first
  793. 30:55video equatorial regions because of the
  794. 30:58wind going either direction they
  795. 31:01actually part some of that equatorial
  796. 31:03region. So water molecules are being
  797. 31:06pulled in either direction towards the
  798. 31:08poles and that leaves an absence of
  799. 31:10water. You can almost think of it as a
  800. 31:12little valley and then water wants to
  801. 31:14rush in to replace that. So you get
  802. 31:16upwelling of deeper bottom waters
  803. 31:18replacing that. Upwelling areas are
  804. 31:22usually nutrient-rich so they support a
  805. 31:24high biological productivity area.
  806. 31:28There are also areas that because of the
  807. 31:30winds pile up water into these little
  808. 31:33bumps and hills. Water then under the
  809. 31:37influence of gravity flows down. So
  810. 31:39that's called downwelling. Downwelling
  811. 31:42is not delivering any nutrients. It's
  812. 31:44just pushing that surface
  813. 31:45down. So we've already seen this issue
  814. 31:48of upwelling and downwelling. But I just
  815. 31:50want to make it really clear. In
  816. 31:51upwelling areas, we get a vertical
  817. 31:53movement of cold, very old,
  818. 31:56nutrient-rich water that's coming back
  819. 31:58up to the surface. Remember residence
  820. 32:00times, these are the water molecules
  821. 32:02that have been sequestered for thousands
  822. 32:05of years. But in the deep ocean, you can
  823. 32:08build up nutrients and then that cold
  824. 32:10rich water can come up in coastal areas
  825. 32:12or even non- coastal areas like the
  826. 32:14equatorial region. They support high
  827. 32:17biological productivity because there's
  828. 32:18an abundance of nutrients and then
  829. 32:21they're hitting the surface where
  830. 32:22there's uh sun. So sunlight plus
  831. 32:25nutrients. There we go. That's the
  832. 32:28recipe for high biological productivity.
  833. 32:30Which just means that phytolanton will
  834. 32:32be abundant. They have their food source
  835. 32:34and they have sunlight the energy
  836. 32:36source. Opposite that we saw that in
  837. 32:38some coastal areas or even open ocean,
  838. 32:41we could have downwelling this vertical
  839. 32:43movement of surface water. So, we saw
  840. 32:45this in the video, but always when you
  841. 32:47look at these images, make sure what
  842. 32:49hemisphere you're in because it makes a
  843. 32:51difference because you're going to use
  844. 32:52the Ecman spiral or Ecman transport
  845. 32:54theory to determine which way that
  846. 32:57surface water is moving. So, here,
  847. 32:59position yourself. Here's the coastline
  848. 33:01to your right. And here we are are on
  849. 33:03the west coast in the northern
  850. 33:05hemisphere. So, imagine northern
  851. 33:07California. That would be nice. And the
  852. 33:09wind is coming in this direction is
  853. 33:11blowing towards you. Remember, if the
  854. 33:13wind is coming in this direction, it's
  855. 33:15going to transport water 90° to the
  856. 33:18right. So, that's going to slosh water
  857. 33:21away from the coastline. Sloshing that
  858. 33:24water away from the coastline leaves
  859. 33:25kind of a water void. Think of it. It
  860. 33:27doesn't happen like movement of water.
  861. 33:29All doesn't rush away, but think of it
  862. 33:31as sloshing that water away. That water
  863. 33:34wants to be replaced. It's going to be
  864. 33:36replaced by cold, nutrient-rich bottom
  865. 33:38waters. This is coastal upwelling. We
  866. 33:41also have coastal downwelling. So here
  867. 33:43we are in the same coast, northern
  868. 33:45hemisphere, right? But the wind is
  869. 33:47coming in that direction. Remember that
  870. 33:49the Ecman spiral is going to shift the
  871. 33:52surface of the sea 90° to the right.
  872. 33:56That's going to slosh water in this case
  873. 33:59towards your coastline. It's going to
  874. 34:01build up that water. Water wants to go
  875. 34:03somewhere. It doesn't want to
  876. 34:04continually build up. It's going to be
  877. 34:06down well. So it's pushing those warmer
  878. 34:08surface waters down. Again, these maps
  879. 34:11can be tricky on a test. Sometimes I
  880. 34:14switch it from northern hemisphere to
  881. 34:16the southern hemisphere. I switch along
  882. 34:19switch the coastline as well. So, it
  883. 34:20gets tricky, but you just have to orient
  884. 34:22yourself what hemisphere I am. Remember
  885. 34:24the rules for the Ecman spiral and the
  886. 34:26Ecman transport and then take it from
  887. 34:28there. We seem to always forget about
  888. 34:31the Antarctic region. Here we have an
  889. 34:34Antarctic circulation. The surface
  890. 34:36waters are moving in a clockwise
  891. 34:40rotation around the Antarctic
  892. 34:43continent. So I just want to hit some of
  893. 34:46the interesting ones and this goes back
  894. 34:48to yeah chapter one when Benjamin
  895. 34:50Franklin realized that ships catching
  896. 34:52the Gulf Stream could reach Britain
  897. 34:54faster. So it's the best studied one. Uh
  898. 34:56you can have meanders or loops. This is
  899. 34:59a western boundary current. So it's
  900. 35:01warm. It's coming up from the equator.
  901. 35:03Water which has been warmed up pushing
  902. 35:05against the continent and driving it
  903. 35:07towards the northern part of the
  904. 35:09northern hemisphere here. But we saw
  905. 35:11this before in some of the LANCAT images
  906. 35:14just because you can get these weird
  907. 35:15undulations. You can encapsulate by eddy
  908. 35:19formation here, warm water eddies or
  909. 35:21even like close off cold water here and
  910. 35:24you get these cold
  911. 35:26rings. Here we have some LANCAT images.
  912. 35:28I showed this one before. Here's the
  913. 35:30warm Caribbean waters coming up. It's
  914. 35:33narrow. It's deep. It's fast. It's
  915. 35:34heading towards the North Atlantic,
  916. 35:36right? And that's going to form the
  917. 35:38northern boundary current when it
  918. 35:40reaches that area. And again, just an
  919. 35:42image that we showed before of the eddi
  920. 35:45formation happens all the time. And you
  921. 35:47can really see these eddies of warm and
  922. 35:48cold water. There's the cold water, cold
  923. 35:51water one. Okay, you've probably heard
  924. 35:54of El Nino. But before we get to what El
  925. 35:57Nino is, we need to know what a normal
  926. 36:00condition is. El Nino conditions are I
  927. 36:03would say abnormal, but they're the
  928. 36:05anti-normal condition. So normal
  929. 36:08conditions, we have air pressure across
  930. 36:10the equatorial Pacific being higher than
  931. 36:13the eastern Pacific. We have strong
  932. 36:15southeast trade winds. We have Pacific
  933. 36:17warm pools on the western side. We have
  934. 36:20a thermocline, remember that rapid
  935. 36:22change in temperature that's deeper on
  936. 36:24the western side. And we have upwelling
  937. 36:26off the coast of Peru. That's a lot, but
  938. 36:29those are the characteristics of the
  939. 36:30normal conditions. Let's look at a
  940. 36:33depiction of
  941. 36:36that. Okay, so here's our normal
  942. 36:39condition. Our normal condition is
  943. 36:41having what we call this walker
  944. 36:43circulation cell that's going from this
  945. 36:46is the Pacific going from the east
  946. 36:50towards the west side of the Pacific. So
  947. 36:52it's going to move that way. This is the
  948. 36:54northern hemisphere and a little bit of
  949. 36:56this other hemisphere here. So we've got
  950. 36:59this cell. The cell is unlike the
  951. 37:01atmospheric cells that were primarily
  952. 37:03going north south or south north that we
  953. 37:05talked about atmospherically the fereral
  954. 37:07the polar um cells that we talked about
  955. 37:11before. These are going in an east west
  956. 37:14direction. So we got this cell set up
  957. 37:16here. We have descending cold air that's
  958. 37:19creating a high pressure system here.
  959. 37:21The high pressure system likes to move
  960. 37:22to the low pressure system here. Notice
  961. 37:24the sea surfaces. Your wind is going
  962. 37:27this way and it's driving all
  963. 37:29that warm water over here. That warm
  964. 37:33water is concentrated here around
  965. 37:35Australia, Japan, Asia, continent right
  966. 37:38here. Okay. Warm uplifting air creates
  967. 37:42fair weather, rainy weather. High
  968. 37:44pressure systems creates nice dry
  969. 37:46conditions here. Look what's happening
  970. 37:48subsurface. This movement from high to
  971. 37:51low pressure, this green vector pushes
  972. 37:54all that warm water to the western side
  973. 37:56of the Pacific Ocean, leaving behind
  974. 38:00sort of absence of water on this side.
  975. 38:02It's actually piling up. You can look at
  976. 38:04elevation differences. You're piling up
  977. 38:06the water on this side of the Pacific,
  978. 38:08leaving a little void here. That void
  979. 38:10wants to replace itself with something.
  980. 38:12It's replaced by upwelling cold,
  981. 38:14nutrient-rich water. That's the normal
  982. 38:16system. So now that we know something
  983. 38:19about the normal condition, we're going
  984. 38:21to watch a video to just solidify our
  985. 38:23understanding of it. Let's look at at
  986. 38:25the abnormal phases. And one of the
  987. 38:27abnormal phases is called El Nino. It's
  988. 38:29a warmer phase. There's another one that
  989. 38:32we'll talk about called Leninia. It's a
  990. 38:34colder phase. But let's start with our
  991. 38:35normal conditions and see what happens.
  992. 38:38In El Nino, we have high pressure in the
  993. 38:40eastern Pacific and it weakens. Weaker
  994. 38:43trade winds. We get that warm pool
  995. 38:45migrating eastward. It was sloshed
  996. 38:47westward. Now it kind of migrates
  997. 38:50eastward changing the atmospheric
  998. 38:53conditions along the coast of the
  999. 38:55eastern the western um coastline of
  1000. 38:58United States and South America. We have
  1001. 39:01a destruction or a weakening of the
  1002. 39:04thermaline. So it's deeper in the
  1003. 39:06eastern Pacific. And we have
  1004. 39:08downwelling. Downwelling means lower
  1005. 39:10biological productivity. Corals are
  1006. 39:13particularly sensitive to this warmer
  1007. 39:15sea water. and you're going to do an
  1008. 39:16activity looking at
  1009. 39:19that. So here we have El Nino and look
  1010. 39:22at the difference. It's almost like a
  1011. 39:23reversal. Before we had a high pressure
  1012. 39:25system here and a low pressure system
  1013. 39:27here. Here it's reversed. High pressure
  1014. 39:29system always moves towards the low
  1015. 39:31pressure system. It's sloshing warmer
  1016. 39:34water over here. This was colder water
  1017. 39:36before in the normal phase. And because
  1018. 39:39you're sloshing it over here, you're not
  1019. 39:41creating a void and up uh upwelling will
  1020. 39:44occur. you're actually just filling in
  1021. 39:46more warmer water along the coastline.
  1022. 39:49So you have a destruction or
  1023. 39:51horizontalization of the thermocline. So
  1024. 39:54go back and you're going to look at
  1025. 39:55these two images and go, "Oh, I get the
  1026. 39:57difference." Look at the weather. We
  1027. 39:59said in a normal phase it was aid, dry,
  1028. 40:01and sunny, right? Typical California or
  1029. 40:04Mediterranean climate along these
  1030. 40:06coasts, Central America and over here in
  1031. 40:09South America. But now we get these
  1032. 40:12under El Nino conditions, very wet,
  1033. 40:14rainy, fair weather conditions. Okay, so
  1034. 40:17I went back to this image which actually
  1035. 40:19shows you the El Nino conditions and
  1036. 40:21also the normal conditions. Let's take a
  1037. 40:24look. Every few years, the El Nino
  1038. 40:26phenomenon kicks into life in the
  1039. 40:28Pacific Ocean around the equator. It can
  1040. 40:31affect weather around the world,
  1041. 40:33changing the odds of floods, drought,
  1042. 40:36heat waves, and cold seasons for
  1043. 40:38different regions. even raising global
  1044. 40:41temperatures. But what is El Nino and
  1045. 40:44how does it happen? Firstly, we need to
  1046. 40:46know what's normally happening in the
  1047. 40:48tropical Pacific. This vast stretch of
  1048. 40:51ocean sees consistent winds called trade
  1049. 40:54winds that blow from east to west. These
  1050. 40:58winds push warm water near the surface
  1051. 41:00in their direction of travel. So, the
  1052. 41:02warm water piles up on the western side
  1053. 41:05of the ocean around Asia and
  1054. 41:07Australasia. On the other side of the
  1055. 41:10ocean around South and Central America,
  1056. 41:12as the warmer water gets pushed away
  1057. 41:15from the coast, it's replaced by cold
  1058. 41:17water which is pulled up from deeper
  1059. 41:20down in the ocean, a process called
  1060. 41:23upwelling. This creates a temperature
  1061. 41:25difference across the tropical Pacific
  1062. 41:28with warmer water piled up in the west
  1063. 41:30and cooler water in the east. Warmer
  1064. 41:33water adds extra heat to the air which
  1065. 41:36causes the air to rise with more vigor.
  1066. 41:38And it's this rising air that creates an
  1067. 41:41area of more unsettled weather with more
  1068. 41:43cloud and
  1069. 41:44rainfall. That rising air in the west
  1070. 41:48sets up atmospheric circulation across
  1071. 41:51this part of the world with warm moist
  1072. 41:53air rising on one side of the ocean and
  1073. 41:56cooler drier air descending on the
  1074. 41:58other. This circulation reinforces the
  1075. 42:01easterly winds. So this part of the
  1076. 42:04world sits in a self-perpetuating state
  1077. 42:07until El Nino begins. If conditions are
  1078. 42:11right, tropical Pacific weather systems
  1079. 42:14or slow changes in the ocean around the
  1080. 42:16equator can set off a chain of events
  1081. 42:19which weaken or even reverse the usual
  1082. 42:21trade winds. With weakened trade winds,
  1083. 42:24there's less push of warm surface water
  1084. 42:27to the western side of the ocean and
  1085. 42:30less upwelling of cold water on the
  1086. 42:33eastern side. This allows the usually
  1087. 42:36colder parts of the ocean to warm,
  1088. 42:38canceling out the normal temperature
  1089. 42:40difference. Because the area of warmest
  1090. 42:43water moves, so does the associated wet
  1091. 42:46and unsettled weather. This changes
  1092. 42:49rainfall patterns over the equatorial
  1093. 42:51Pacific as well as the largecale wind
  1094. 42:54patterns. It's this change in winds
  1095. 42:57which has a knock-on effect changing
  1096. 42:59temperature and rainfall in locations
  1097. 43:02around the world. The main impacts are
  1098. 43:05around the tropics where you see an
  1099. 43:07increase in the risk of floods in Peru
  1100. 43:10and droughts in Indonesia, India, and
  1101. 43:12parts of Brazil. But virtually wherever
  1102. 43:16you are in the world, El Nino has the
  1103. 43:18potential to affect you directly via the
  1104. 43:21weather or indirectly via socioeconomic
  1105. 43:24impacts. There's another impact from El
  1106. 43:27Nino which happens because of all the
  1107. 43:29extra heat at the surface of the
  1108. 43:31tropical Pacific. This releases vast
  1109. 43:34amounts of energy into the atmosphere
  1110. 43:36which can temporarily push up global
  1111. 43:39temperatures. This is why El Nino years
  1112. 43:42often feature among the warmest on
  1113. 43:44record. Each El Nino event is different
  1114. 43:48so the global impacts can change. You
  1115. 43:51can find out more about the differing
  1116. 43:53impacts of El Nino on our website. So I
  1117. 43:56hope that video put my two figures and
  1118. 43:59explanation and laundry list here into
  1119. 44:01action and you understand it more. So
  1120. 44:05really really important it is unperiodic
  1121. 44:09or
  1122. 44:11non-determinable presence El no events.
  1123. 44:14So they sometimes can predict them by
  1124. 44:16changes in sea surface temperature but
  1125. 44:19they're erratic as we'll see
  1126. 44:21momentarily. So I want to talk about the
  1127. 44:23last one and this sort of looks like the
  1128. 44:25normal condition map and it is. It's
  1129. 44:28called leninia. It's called the cold
  1130. 44:30phase and it's just a heightened normal
  1131. 44:33phase where you get even more warm water
  1132. 44:36slushed towards the western boundary of
  1133. 44:38the Pacific Ocean. You get even more
  1134. 44:41upwelling in the eastern portion here of
  1135. 44:44the Pacific Ocean. So the western coasts
  1136. 44:47of South America and North America. So
  1137. 44:49it's a heightened normal phase here.
  1138. 44:52Even more upwelling. So much colder
  1139. 44:55temperatures here and uh but you still
  1140. 44:58have this high pressure and uh
  1141. 45:00Mediterranean climate here instead of
  1142. 45:02wet conditions. So we can look at sea
  1143. 45:04surface and in an activity you'll do you
  1144. 45:07actually looking at coral reef impacts
  1145. 45:09under an El Nino versus a normal phase.
  1146. 45:14Um so sea surface temperatures again you
  1147. 45:16can start to predict these and we have
  1148. 45:18the ability to use satellite images to
  1149. 45:20look at sea surface temperatures and
  1150. 45:22either predict that an El Nino year is
  1151. 45:24coming or a leninia event is coming as
  1152. 45:26well. As I said these are irregular
  1153. 45:29highly irregular highly unpredictable
  1154. 45:31although scientists are getting better
  1155. 45:33at using sea surface temperatures to
  1156. 45:35look at small changes and to predict
  1157. 45:37that larger changes. The phase usually
  1158. 45:40lasts for 12 to 18 months and you can
  1159. 45:42see the um the events here leading up to
  1160. 45:45around uh 2020. So fairly recent
  1161. 45:49data, the implications are global
  1162. 45:52although we really concentrate on what's
  1163. 45:54going to happen to the western United
  1164. 45:56States weather under an El Nino. It's
  1165. 45:58going to be much rainier. There's going
  1166. 45:59to be mudslides. It's a worldwide event.
  1167. 46:02And you can see here and read in your
  1168. 46:04book that everything from m mar mar mar
  1169. 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
  1170. 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
  1171. 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar
  1172. 46:06mar mar mar mar mar mar marine life can
  1173. 46:07be affected coral reef damage you'll see
  1174. 46:09that in the activity incidences of
  1175. 46:11forest fires we've certainly seen that
  1176. 46:13in California and British Columbia
  1177. 46:16tropical storm events so this is not
  1178. 46:18just a weather pattern and whether it's
  1179. 46:21cool or warm weather off the coast of
  1180. 46:23California or Central America it's it's
  1181. 46:26globally influencing a lot of these
  1182. 46:28things there is a video here and uh for
  1183. 46:32the purposes of time I'm going to allow
  1184. 46:34you to open up the PowerPoint and take a
  1185. 46:36look at that but you can first
  1186. 46:38understand these events normal El Nino
  1187. 46:41and Leninia and then look at the
  1188. 46:44effects I just want to kind of end here
  1189. 46:47with some north pole and south pole
  1190. 46:50implications of what's happening on the
  1191. 46:52sea surface and the influence of
  1192. 46:54currents um sea ice formation when ice
  1193. 46:57forms under cold conditions it excludes
  1194. 47:01the salt salt. So those ions in salty
  1195. 47:03water are excluded. So as I said before
  1196. 47:06that sea ice formation, if it happens
  1197. 47:08slowly, it excludes the the salt and you
  1198. 47:10can actually drink it because it's pure
  1199. 47:12water. You get these needle-ike crystals
  1200. 47:14becoming slush and slush becomes a
  1201. 47:16discshaped pancake ice as it's called in
  1202. 47:19calmer waters and then pancake ice
  1203. 47:21coaleses to form ice flows. Here you can
  1204. 47:24see some of the pancake ice name is
  1205. 47:27apppropo here and some of these ice
  1206. 47:31flows. The rate of formation depends
  1207. 47:33obviously on the temperature. It's
  1208. 47:35self-perpetuating and ice flows thicken
  1209. 47:38and form thick pressure ridges and they
  1210. 47:40actually sometimes cleave together and
  1211. 47:43uh form these uplifting areas of sea
  1212. 47:48ice. Iceberg formation. Icebergs can
  1213. 47:50break off of glaciers. This happens a
  1214. 47:52lot in Antarctica which is glacier
  1215. 47:54covered. Uh we have floating bodies of
  1216. 47:57ice and we uh quite different from sea
  1217. 47:59ice. Active icebergs can cave off from
  1218. 48:02western Greenland glaciers and they do
  1219. 48:04Antarctica. They're carried by currents.
  1220. 48:06So they're predictable uh with current
  1221. 48:09satellite imagery of looking at the
  1222. 48:12current and the direction of the sea
  1223. 48:14surface currents. As I said, Antarctica,
  1224. 48:17the glaciers are covering that
  1225. 48:19continent, and the edges we've seen
  1226. 48:21break off. They are sometimes enormous,
  1227. 48:23like this image. And sometimes they are
  1228. 48:25enormous. This is an aerial view of part
  1229. 48:27of a large tabular Antarctic iceberg,
  1230. 48:31and it is around the size of the state
  1231. 48:34of Delaware sometimes. So, we've spent
  1232. 48:37most of this video on surface currents.
  1233. 48:41Don't forget those deep currents. They
  1234. 48:43are below below the picnocline. So this
  1235. 48:45rapid change in density and temperature
  1236. 48:48it represents most of the ocean water
  1237. 48:51because most of the ocean water is in
  1238. 48:52the deep ocean. They're slow velocities.
  1239. 48:55So they move very slowly. The movement
  1240. 48:57is caused by differences in density.
  1241. 48:59Like I said, temperature and salinity
  1242. 49:02and as we know cooler seawater is denser
  1243. 49:04and saltier seawater is denser. So we
  1244. 49:06have this two-layer system of that cold
  1245. 49:08salty seawater sitting upon the top
  1246. 49:10surface waters. These two systems set
  1247. 49:13off an enormous conveyor belt called the
  1248. 49:16North Atlantic deep
  1249. 49:19water. This is how surface currents end
  1250. 49:22up subsiding and then becoming deep
  1251. 49:25ocean currents. The cold surface water
  1252. 49:28sinks at the polar regions. So in the
  1253. 49:31red we have all the near surface or
  1254. 49:33shallow currents and in the blue we have
  1255. 49:35the deep cold currents happening. So
  1256. 49:38much of this we were talking about
  1257. 49:40what's driving these currents, the
  1258. 49:42surface currents, but now we're going to
  1259. 49:44take one last video look to determine
  1260. 49:47this North Atlantic North Atlantic deep
  1261. 49:50water circulation and also globally how
  1262. 49:53this circulates. Let's take a look.
  1263. 49:55Oxygen gets mixed into the ocean by the
  1264. 49:58churning action of waves, currents, and
  1265. 50:01tides on the surface. But it's the great
  1266. 50:04ocean conveyor that takes oxygen to the
  1267. 50:07ocean's deepest
  1268. 50:09depths. The conveyor moves surface water
  1269. 50:12warmed at the equator toward the poles.
  1270. 50:16As the water cools, it becomes denser
  1271. 50:18and sinks to the deep ocean, taking life
  1272. 50:22sustaining oxygen with it.
  1273. 50:26How do we turn off the conveyor? We
  1274. 50:28simply remove the difference in
  1275. 50:30temperature between the poles and the
  1276. 50:32tropics. We warm the poles. We keep the
  1277. 50:35tropics the same temperature. That
  1278. 50:37conveyor which is driven by heat
  1279. 50:40differences stops. When it stops, we
  1280. 50:43lose oxygen on the bottom and we start
  1281. 50:45the mechanism to mass extinction. Okay.
  1282. 50:48So, I want to go back here. We've looked
  1283. 50:50at these surface currents and these gys,
  1284. 50:52right? The warm water cooling becoming
  1285. 50:55warmer, right? Those were surface
  1286. 50:56currents. What happens? And we're just
  1287. 50:58going to take the example of the Gulf
  1288. 51:00Stream taking all that warm, deep water
  1289. 51:04up to the poles. Yes, we know it cools
  1290. 51:07off. And part of it becomes the surface
  1291. 51:09currents, the northern boundary and the
  1292. 51:11eastern boundary returning to the
  1293. 51:13equator. Those are surface currents. But
  1294. 51:15part of what happens is when that cold
  1295. 51:17water meets that colder pole
  1296. 51:19environment, what happens? Well, you get
  1297. 51:22sea ice. Sea ice formation enriches the
  1298. 51:25bottom of that sea ice with even more
  1299. 51:28salts. Those salts become dense. So as
  1300. 51:31you exclude those salts from the ice
  1301. 51:34pack, you enrich that water with saltier
  1302. 51:37water. It becomes really, really dense.
  1303. 51:39And now it flows to the bottom of the
  1304. 51:42basin of the ocean, cold, nutrient-rich
  1305. 51:46water. And as this video said, oh by the
  1306. 51:48way, there's oxygen in there. So we can
  1307. 51:50deliver oxygen globally through this
  1308. 51:53network of deep water conveyor belts.
  1309. 51:55It's a complicated system, but I just
  1310. 51:57wanted to say we've studied most of this
  1311. 51:59stuff in this chapter as a surface
  1312. 52:01phenomenon, but those packets of water,
  1313. 52:04which are surface currents, sometimes
  1314. 52:06descend and become this complicated
  1315. 52:09system of moving water beneath the sea
  1316. 52:12surface in the deep ocean. So the deep
  1317. 52:15ocean currents are cold. They're oxygen
  1318. 52:17rich, as we saw in that video.
  1319. 52:20Dissolved oxygen is really important for
  1320. 52:22life and for some of the processes that
  1321. 52:24are happening at the bottom of the
  1322. 52:27ocean. Changes in the
  1323. 52:29thermocline circulation can cause global
  1324. 52:32climate change. And that video alluded
  1325. 52:34to that. If we start to mess around with
  1326. 52:37heightened increases of temperatures on
  1327. 52:39Earth, we start to break down this
  1328. 52:41conveyor belt that exists and imparts
  1329. 52:44oxygen and nutrient-rich waters to the
  1330. 52:46deep ocean.
  1331. 52:48example here, warmer surface waters are
  1332. 52:51less dense. They won't sink and their
  1333. 52:54less oxygen will be in the deep ocean as
  1334. 52:56a ramification of
  1335. 52:59that. So, that concludes chapter 7. It
  1336. 53:02was a whirlwind tour. Probably one of
  1337. 53:04the most heady or meaty information-wise
  1338. 53:08of the chapters we've hit so far with
  1339. 53:10some really cool phenomenons that are
  1340. 53:13happening to impart the direction and
  1341. 53:15the speed of these surface currents and
  1342. 53:18a little bit towards the end about the
  1343. 53:20circulation in the deep ocean. I hope
  1344. 53:23you enjoyed it. We'll see you in the
  1345. 53:24next chapter.

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