OCEAN - ATMOSPHERE

OCEAN – ATM OBJECTIVES• Explain the origin of global wind belts and their patterns• Explain the ocean’s role in heat redistribution• Connect atmospheric circulation patterns to global salinity distribution• Describe the Coriolis effect and its influence on global winds and ocean

currents• Explain ocean and atmospheric changes that occur during the El Nino/La

Nina oscillations• Explain the main factors that drive surface ocean currents• Describe Ekman transport, geostrophic currents, and the subtropical gyres• Explain the differences between eastern and western boundary currents• Identify major surface ocean currents• Identify where upwelling and down welling occur

ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION• Map of Cloud Distribution

• What patterns do you observe?• Which regions are cloudy? Clear?

THE SUN

• Sea Surface temps warmer in tropics than poles.

THE SUN

• Results– Uneven heating– Tropics receive

more energy thanthey emit back

– Polars reflect more energy than gain

– If this continued, the tropics would boil and the polar regions would freeze!

IDEAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION

• Wind blows due to Pressure Gradients

• Warm = Low• Cold = High• Earth’s Rotation

affects the way the winds blow.

EARTH’S ROTATION

• Earth’s rotation modifies wind patterns– Causes some air to sink in subtropics– Causes winds (and currents) to appear deflected

from original course• Coriolis Effect

3D ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION

• Subtropics– High Pressures

• Subpolar– Low Pressures

• 3 Circ. Cells– Hadley Cell• Tropics