Download ABC`s to Oceanography

ABC’s to Oceanography
Index of Oceanography Terms
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Atmosphere
Buoyancy
Currents
Density
Epipelagic Zone
Food Chain
Gulf Stream
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Hydrophones
Inertia
Jason-1
Knot
Lead Line
Meteorology
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Numerical Models
Ocean
Phytoplankton
QuikSCAT
Rain
Sea Spray
Tides
Upwelling
 Vector Wind Stress
 Waves
 Heat Flux
 Oceanography
 Zooplankton
Did you know?
tmosphere
 A thin blanket of air that protects Earth
 The atmosphere is crucial to life on Earth
 Without the atmosphere:
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If Earth were the size
of a beach ball, the
atmosphere would be
thinner than a piece
of paper
Organisms would die within a few minutes
There would be no lakes, oceans, sounds, clouds, or red sunsets
Earth would experience extremely cold temperatures at night and extremely warm
temperatures during the day
Fast Fact:
99% of the
atmosphere is
contained within 30
kilometers of
Earth’s surface
Image of the atmosphere taken
from space
Image of the atmosphere taken
from a space shuttle
Extension of Atmosphere
 The atmosphere and the ocean are closely linked
• The entire atmosphere holds as much heat as the top 2.5 meters (8 feet) of the ocean
• The entire atmosphere holds as much water as 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) of the ocean
 Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) - lowest part of the atmosphere
• Wind strength and the heat flux between the air and ocean impact ABL thickness
 Cloud patterns within the ABL
• Cumulus & stratocumulus at the top of a humid ABL
• Fog at the bottom of a stable ABL (little mixing)
Cumulus
Stratocumulus
Fog
uoyancy
Did you know?
Human bodies
cannot sink in the
Dead Sea
because the water
is so dense
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea
 A force created by differences in density
 When two substances with different densities are mixed in a container,
buoyancy causes the:
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Less dense substance to rise to the top
More dense substance to sink to the bottom
 Where is buoyancy visible in real life?
• Hot air balloons rise in
the air because the warm
air inside the balloon is
less dense than the
surrounding air
• Syrup sinks to the
bottom of a glass
of water because
syrup is more
dense than water
Fast Fact:
urrents
Surface currents
affect the top 10%
of the ocean
 Continuous, directed movement of large streams of ocean water
 Two major types of currents:
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Surface Currents
• Form when surface winds push the water in the direction of the wind
Deep Ocean Currents
• Huge water masses move and mix in response to changes in water
temperature and salinity
 Why are currents important?
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Currents influence the climate, ship
routes, and the lives of plants
Fast Fact:
and animals living on land
The Gulf Stream is
and in oceans
both a surface
current and a deep
ocean current
http://science.hq.nasa.gov/oceans/physical/OSC.html
Extension of Currents
 Coriolis Effect - the earth’s rotation causes ocean currents to bend
• Northern Hemisphere currents forced to the right
• Southern Hemisphere currents forced to the left
• Coriolis force is strongest at the Poles and weakest at the equator
• The bending angle of currents increases with ocean depth
• A deep ocean current may flow in a direction different than the surface current
Expected path of water without Coriolis Effect
Actual path of water with Coriolis Effect
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Fast Fact:
ensity
All the land on earth
would be covered
with 5 feet of salt, if
the ocean’s salt
content were dried
 A measure of how heavy something is
in relation to its size (mass per unit volume)
 Temperature and salinity affect the density of ocean water
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What is salinity?
• A measure of the amount of salt dissolved in water
 Graph shows density of ocean water
based on salinity and temperature
 Observations from graph:
• An increase in temperature results in a
decrease in density
• An increase in salinity results in an
increase in density
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Extension of Density
 Ocean density changes throughout
• Low density water can be found near the surface
• High density water can be found deep in the ocean
 Pycnocline – an ocean layer where water density
increases rapidly with depth
 Changes in the density of surface water:
• If the density of the surface water decreases
• Its position will remain the same
• If the surface water becomes more dense
than the water below
• It will sink to a level where there is
water with the same density
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Epipelagic Zone
pipelagic Zone
Mesopelagic Zone
Fast Fact:
 Top layer of the ocean where
sunlight is present
 Plants take in the sunlight to
complete photosynthesis
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Light penetrates
hundreds of feet in
the Caribbean, but
only a few inches in
the Hudson river
The epipelagic zone is the only zone where plants are found
 What can be found below the epipelagic zone?
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The mesopelagic zone, or twilight zone
• The dim light found in this zone does not provide enough
energy for plants to perform photosynthesis
In the 3 zones that exist beyond this zone there is zero sunlight
http://www.rain.org/ocean/
Fast Fact:
ood Chain
99% of earth’s
living space is
contained by
the oceans
 A sequence of marine organisms that pass nutrients to
one another
 Sun - main source of energy for marine food chains
 Producers take in the Sun’s energy to make their food
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Phytoplankton – major producers in the ocean
 Consumers eat other organisms since they cannot
produce their own food
 Does pollution harm the food chain?
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Yes
If phytoplankton absorb marine pollutants, the pollutants
eventually accumulate to lethal levels in larger animals
 What is a food web?
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Several intertwined food chains resultant of organisms
belonging to more than one food chain
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