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Subtropical Gyre
In oceanography, a gyre () is any large system of ocean surface currents moving in a circular fashion driven by wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determine the circulatory patterns from the ''wind stress curl'' (torque). ''Gyre'' can refer to any type of vortex in an atmosphere or a sea, even one that is human-created, but it is most commonly used in terrestrial oceanography to refer to the major ocean systems. Gyre formation The largest ocean gyres are wind-driven, meaning that their locations and dynamics are controlled by the prevailing global wind patterns: easterlies at the tropics and westerlies at the midlatitudes. These wind patterns result in a wind stress curl that drives Ekman pumping in the subtropics (resulting in downwelling) and Ekman suction in subpolar regions (resulting in upwelling). Ekman pumping results in an increased sea surface height at the center of the gyre and ...
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Oceanography
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries; ecosystem dynamics; and plate tectonics and seabed geology. Oceanographers draw upon a wide range of disciplines to deepen their understanding of the world’s oceans, incorporating insights from astronomy, biology, chemistry, geography, geology, hydrology, meteorology and physics. History Early history Humans first acquired knowledge of the waves and currents of the seas and oceans in pre-historic times. Observations on tides were recorded by Aristotle and Strabo in 384–322 BC. Early exploration of the oceans was primarily for cartography and mainly ...
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Geostrophic Current
A geostrophic current is an oceanic current in which the pressure gradient force is balanced by the Coriolis effect. The direction of geostrophic flow is parallel to the isobars, with the high pressure to the right of the flow in the Northern Hemisphere, and the high pressure to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. The concept is familiar from weather maps, whose isobars show the direction of geostrophic winds. Geostrophic flows may be barotropic or baroclinic. A geostrophic current may also be thought of as a rotating shallow water wave with a frequency of zero. The principle of '' geostrophy'' or ''geostrophic balance'' is useful to oceanographers because it allows them to infer ocean currents from measurements of the sea surface height (by combined satellite altimetry and gravimetry) or from vertical profiles of seawater density taken by ships or autonomous buoys. The major currents of the world's oceans including the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio Current, the Agulh ...
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Munk Gyre Circulation
Munk is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Munk (born 1965), alias of Estonian actor and singer Ivo Uukkivi * Alena Munkova (1926-2008), Czech writer who worked in Staflik a Spagetka * Anders Munk (1922–1989), Danish mycologist * Andrzej Munk (1920–1961), Polish film director * Eduard Munk (1803–1871), German philologist * Elie Munk (1900–1981), German-born French rabbi and rabbinic scholar * Hermann Munk (1839–1912), German physiologist * Jens Munk (1579–1628), Danish-Norwegian explorer of the Arctic * Jiri Munk (born TBA), Czech writer and Alena's brother * József Munk (b. 1890), Hungarian Olympic medalist swimmer * Kaj Munk (1898–1944), Danish playwright * Kirsten Munk (1598–1658), morganatic wife of Christian IV of Denmark-Norway * Ludvig Munk (1537–1602), Governor-general of Norway from 1577 to 1583 * Marc-David Munk (born 1973), Physician and executive * Marie Munk (1885-1978), German-American lawyer, first female judge in Germany * ...
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Walter Munk
Walter Heinrich Munk (October 19, 1917 – February 8, 2019) was an American physical oceanographer. He was one of the first scientists to bring statistical methods to the analysis of oceanographic data. Munk worked on a wide range of topics, including surface waves, geophysical implications of variations in the Earth's rotation, tides, internal waves, deep-ocean drilling into the sea floor, acoustical measurements of ocean properties, sea level rise, and climate change. His work won awards including the National Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, and induction to the French Legion of Honour. Munk's career began before the outbreak of World War II and ended nearly 80 years later with his death in 2019. The war interrupted his doctoral studies at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps), and led to his participation in U.S. military research efforts. Munk and his doctoral advisor Harald Sverdrup developed methods for forecasting wave conditions which were used in ...
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Henry Stommel
Henry Melson Stommel (September 27, 1920 – January 17, 1992) was a major contributor to the field of physical oceanography. Beginning in the 1940s, he advanced theories about global ocean circulation patterns and the behavior of the Gulf Stream that form the basis of physical oceanography today. Widely recognized as one of the most influential and productive oceanographers of his time, Stommel was both a groundbreaking theoretician and an astute, seagoing observer. Early life and education Stommel was born in Wilmington, Delaware. An anomaly among modern scientists, Stommel became a full professor without an earned doctorate. He received his B.S. in astronomy from Yale University (1942) and served there as instructor in mathematics and astronomy (1942–44). Academic posts He was research associate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1944 to 1959 where the Office of Naval Research generously supported his projects. He became professor of oceanography at Harv ...
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Munk Boundary Layer
Munk is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Munk (born 1965), alias of Estonian actor and singer Ivo Uukkivi * Alena Munkova (1926-2008), Czech writer who worked in Staflik a Spagetka * Anders Munk (1922–1989), Danish mycologist * Andrzej Munk (1920–1961), Polish film director * Eduard Munk (1803–1871), German philologist * Elie Munk (1900–1981), German-born French rabbi and rabbinic scholar * Hermann Munk (1839–1912), German physiologist * Jens Munk (1579–1628), Danish-Norwegian explorer of the Arctic * Jiri Munk (born TBA), Czech writer and Alena's brother * József Munk (b. 1890), Hungarian Olympic medalist swimmer * Kaj Munk (1898–1944), Danish playwright * Kirsten Munk (1598–1658), morganatic wife of Christian IV of Denmark-Norway * Ludvig Munk (1537–1602), Governor-general of Norway from 1577 to 1583 * Marc-David Munk (born 1973), Physician and executive * Marie Munk (1885-1978), German-American lawyer, first female judge in Germany * ...
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Rossby Parameter
The Rossby parameter (or simply beta \beta) is a number used in geophysics and meteorology which arises due to the meridional variation of the Coriolis force caused by the spherical shape of the Earth. It is important in the generation of Rossby waves. The Rossby parameter \beta is given byLecture Notes
for Atmospheric Science Mesoscale Dynamics (MEA 713). . Accessed 14 July 2007. :\beta = \frac = \frac \frac (2 \omega \sin\phi) = \frac where f is the , \phi ...
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Zonal And Meridional Flow
Zonal and meridional flow are directions and regions of fluid flow on a globe. Zonal flow follows a pattern along latitudinal lines, latitudinal circles or in the west–east direction. Meridional flow follows a pattern from north to south, or from south to north, along the Earth's longitude lines, longitudinal circles ( meridian) or in the north–south direction. These terms are often used in the atmospheric and earth sciences to describe global phenomena, such as "meridional wind", or "zonal average temperature". In the context of physics, zonal flow connotes a tendency of flux to conform to a pattern parallel to the equator of a sphere. In meteorological term regarding atmospheric circulation, zonal flow brings a temperature contrast along the Earth's longitude. Extratropical cyclones in zonal flows tend to be weaker, moving faster and producing relatively little impact on local weather. Extratropical cyclones in meridional flows tend to be stronger and move slower. ...
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Sverdrup Balance
The Sverdrup balance, or Sverdrup relation, is a theoretical relationship between the wind stress exerted on the surface of the open ocean and the vertically integrated meridional (north-south) transport of ocean water. History Aside from the oscillatory motions associated with tidal flow, there are two primary causes of large scale flow in the ocean: ''(1)'' thermohaline processes, which induce motion by introducing changes at the surface in temperature and salinity, and therefore in seawater density, and ''(2)'' wind forcing. In the 1940s, when Harald Sverdrup was thinking about calculating the gross features of ocean circulation, he chose to consider exclusively the wind stress component of the forcing. As he says in his 1947 paper, in which he presented the Sverdrup relation, this is probably the more important of the two. After making the assumption that frictional dissipation is negligible, Sverdrup obtained the simple result that the meridional mass transport (the ...
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Harald Sverdrup (oceanographer)
Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (15 November 1888 – 21 August 1957) was a Norwegian oceanography, oceanographer and meteorologist. He served as director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Norwegian Polar Institute. Background He was born at Sogndal in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. He was the son of Lutheran theologian Edvard Sverdrup (1861–1923) and Maria Vollan (1865–1891). His sister Mimi Sverdrup Lunden (1894–1955) was an educator and author. His brother Leif Sverdrup (1898–1976) was a General with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His brother Einar Sverdrup (1895–1942) was CEO of Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani. Sverdrup was a student at Bergen Cathedral School in 1901 before graduating in 1906 at Kongsgård School in Stavanger. He graduated cand. real. in 1914 from University of Oslo. He studied under Vilhelm Bjerknes and earned his Dr. Philos. at the University of Leipzig in 1917. Career He was the scientific director of the North Pole, North ...
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Material Derivative
In continuum mechanics, the material derivative describes the time rate of change of some physical quantity (like heat or momentum) of a material element that is subjected to a space-and-time-dependent macroscopic velocity field. The material derivative can serve as a link between Eulerian and Lagrangian descriptions of continuum deformation. For example, in fluid dynamics, the velocity field is the flow velocity, and the quantity of interest might be the temperature of the fluid. In this case, the material derivative then describes the temperature change of a certain fluid parcel with time, as it flows along its pathline (trajectory). Other names There are many other names for the material derivative, including: *advective derivative *convective derivative *derivative following the motion *hydrodynamic derivative *Lagrangian derivative *particle derivative *substantial derivative *substantive derivative *Stokes derivative *total derivative, although the material derivati ...
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Coriolis Frequency
The Coriolis frequency ''ƒ'', also called the Coriolis parameter or Coriolis coefficient, is equal to twice the rotation rate ''Ω'' of the Earth multiplied by the sine of the latitude \varphi. f = 2 \Omega \sin \varphi.\, The rotation rate of the Earth (''Ω'' = 7.2921 × 10−5 rad/s) can be calculated as 2''π'' / ''T'' radians per second, where ''T'' is the rotation period of the Earth which is one ''sidereal'' day (23 h 56 min 4.1 s). In the midlatitudes, the typical value for f is about 10−4 rad/s. Inertial oscillations on the surface of the Earth have this frequency. These oscillations are the result of the Coriolis effect. Explanation Consider a body (for example a fixed volume of atmosphere) moving along at a given latitude \varphi at velocity v in the Earth's rotating reference frame. In the local reference frame of the body, the vertical direction is parallel to the radial vector pointin ...
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