SURFACE OCEAN CURRENTS

Ocean currents are divided into two types of flow, according to the factors that power
them. Most surface currents are driven by the wind. Subsurface currents are density-driven. This
means that dense water under the effect gravity sinks and thus displaces less dense water.
Although subsurface water is not affected by winds, it is influenced strongly by climate over the
long term,because climate controls the salinity and temperature of water masses and herice their
density.

The wind-driven surface currents affect only about 10 percent of the oceans volume, yet
most of this chapter is devoted to them, because people are better acquainted with the seas
surface than with its depths. Sailor propel their boats through their currents. Much less is known
about water movements in the oceans depths. The boxed feature, Current-Measuring
Techniques, described the instruments that oceanographers use to measure surface currents. At
this point in our discussion, it might be helpful familiarize yours self with those instruments.

THE WIND-DRIVEN CURRENTS OF THE SEA SURFACE

In this section, we will study the prevailing currents that flow, on the average, steadily
for years at a time. What the must remember, however, is that the actual current flow at any
surface location of the ocean may, because of day-to-day variations in weather and water-flow
patterns, be very different on any particular day from the average conditions. The pattern of
wind-driven surface circulation results from the interaction of wind drag, pressure gradients, and
coriolis deflection. Each will be discussed separately.

WIND DRAG

Wind is moving air. As air molecules are dragged across the sea surface in a wind, they
collide with water molecules at the oceans surface. The energy transfer by frictional drag, if
prolonged raises and generates currents.

PRESSURE GRADIENTS

A pressure gradient, as explained earlier, is merely a change of pressure across a

horizontal distance. The greater the pressure differential over a given distance, the steeper is the
pressure gradient. Near the sea surface, pressure gradients arise as a consequence of horizontal
variations in the height of the water surface. Water that is piled up in a mound creates a zone of
high pressure because of an increase in the height of the water column (p=pgh, where h is water
height). Water responds by flowing down the pressure gradient. The steeper the pressure
gradient, the faster is the flow of water, in the same way that a ball will roll down a steep slope
faster than it will down gentle slope. What isnt obvious, though, is how can water be piled into a
mound? With the exception of waves, water surface are always flat, arent they this in an
intriguing question. After all, common experience tells us that water poured from glass quickly
flattens out to level surface under the force of gravity. However, if we imagine pouring water
from a glass with an infinite capacity, then the water streaming out of this hypothetical glass will
sustain a mound of water indefinitely beneath the glass. Water spreads out from the mound, but it
is replaced immediately by water pouring out of the glass, sustaining the mound and, hence, the
pressure gradient. This mound of water will cause the water to continually flow outward in a
radial pattern in response to a permanent horizontal pressure gradient. Later in this section, you
will discover that mounds of water in the real ocean are created by converging currents.

Most people imagine that the sea surface when undisturbed by waves is flat. It is not!
When examined carefully, it reveals a definite topography. It is literally warped into broad
mounds and depression, so that if you could walk across its surface, you would be moving up
hills and down valleys across its eneven watery surface. True, these are not towering hills
of water: the difference in elevation between the top of the water hill and the bottom of da
water valley is there are two principal ways to measure water currents directly. One, the
eulerian method, named after the swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler(1707-1783), measures the
current with a meter fixed to the oceanfloor. The other, the lagrangian method, named aafter the
Italian mathematician joseph lagrange (1736-1813), uses a neutrally buoyant float that drifts
with the water. Both types of measurements are discussed here.

EULERIAN METHOD

Eulerian current meters are mounted on buoy systems that are attached to cables
anchored to the sea bottom . after being deployed from the ship, the current-meter system is left
in place for a pfredetermined amound of time-days, weeks, monthsthat depends on the
research objectives. Several current meters may be attached to the same cable. The current
meters become oriented into the water current by means of a vane, in the same way that moving
water air orients a wind vane. Current speed is measured by an impeller, essentially a propeller
that is rotated by the force of the current; the faster is the rotational rate of the impeller. These
measurement of the current direction and speed are recorded directly into computer-chip
memory. The current meter is later retrieved by the use of a sound signal, which activates an
acoustic link that disengages the cable aqn the instrument package from then achor. The
intrument system with its valuable data set then floats tho the sea surface, where it is located
acoustically and retrieved.

A new but expensive meter-the Doppler Acoustic current meter-has been developed to
measure currents at several depths. The meter can either be mounted on the keel of a research
vessel or deployed on the sea bottom.