Mixed Layer

The term "mixed" refers to a given physical parameter of

the ocean state (e.g. temperature, density...) that is
assumed to be mixed and homogeneous to a certain level
(e.g. regarding some space/time scales), from the surface
down to the considered MLD.
The mixed layer is characterized by being nearly uniform in
properties such as temperature and salinity throughout the
layer.
Seasonal evolution of Temperature – Mid latitude

 Shallow warm mixed layer

during summer – spring (March –
August)

Cold deep mixed layer during

fall -winter (September –
February)
The mixed layer plays an important role in the physical climate.

- specific heat of ocean water is much larger than that of air (the top 2.5
m of the ocean holds as much heat as the entire atmosphere above it. )

-the heat required to change a mixed layer of 25 m by 1 °C would be

sufficient to raise the temperature of the atmosphere by 10 °C.

The mixed layer is also important as its depth determines the average level of
light seen by marine organisms.

- in very deep mixed layers, the tiny marine plants known

as phytoplankton are unable to get enough light to maintain their metabolism
 Thermocline
 A thermocline is the transition layer between warmer mixed
water at the ocean's surface and cooler deep water below.

 Thermoclines also play a role in meteorological forecasting. For

example, hurricane forecasters must consider not just the
temperature of the ocean's skin (the sea surface temperature),
but also the depth of warm water above the thermocline. Water
vapor evaporated from the ocean is a hurricane's primary fuel.
The depth of the thermocline is the measure of the size of the
"fuel tank" and helps to predict the risk of hurricane formation
the depth and strength of the
thermocline vary from season to
season and year to year.

semi-permanent in the tropics,

variable in temperate regions

(often deepest during the
summer), and

shallow to nonexistent in the

polar regions, where the water
column is cold from the surface to
the bottom.
Temperature Inversions

 Equatorial Indian Ocean

 Bay of Bengal
 South eastern Arabian Sea
 Western tropical Pacific
 Temperature inversion- causes
 Downward propagation of the annual variation of SST – if the
summer warming have a vertical extent more than winter cooling

Wind forced advection of cold water over warm water – if the wind
has a dominating role in the advective processes

Net heat loss at the sea surface –usually occurs during the initial
months of winter

Thermohaline forced advection of cold less saline water over warm

saline water – Inversion occurring in the south eastern Arabian Sea

Importance : The heat energy stored in the inversion layer

contributes to the heat budget – warms up the mixed layer (once
the winds pick up) – increases the SST
 Ocean Eddies
General pattern of ocean flow is known as ocean currents; some times
they pinch off sections and create circular currents of water called eddy

Typical horizontal scales of less than 100km, timescale –order of month,

can move at speeds of 0.5 knots (0.9 km per hour)

Transports heat and salt around the oceans

Gulf Stream – warm and cold eddies

Where Do Mesoscale Eddies Come From?

largest scale eddies (100 kms): emerge from instabilities of strongly

horizontally sheared motions, particularly in boundary currents such
as the Gulf Stream. These eddies often take the form of well defined
rings extending to great depth.

smaller scales (10s of km): baroclinic instability (arises from slopped

pressure contours)

 Both of these formation processes lead to hot spots of eddy energy in

the vicinity of western boundary currents and the Antarctic
Circumpolar Current
 Cyclonic and anti cyclonic eddies

 Cyclonic Eddies : moves in a counterclockwise direction in the northern

hemisphere. The center of the eddy is likely cooler and lower in height (by a
few tens of centimeters) than the outer lying waters. Also known as cold core
eddies

Anticyclonic eddies: moves in a clockwise direction in the northern

hemisphere and the center is warmer and higher (by a few tens of
centimeters) than outer waters. Also known as warm core eddies

 Winds produce surface currents that sometimes cause convergence (coming

together) or divergence (moving apart) of upper ocean waters over surface
areas several kilometers in scale.
Under the right divergent conditions, cool, nutrient-rich waters can upwell
(move vertically up) from deeper waters to act as a seed for the formation of
a cold-core eddy. Likewise, warmer, nutrient-poor waters may converge, be
downwelled, and a warm-core eddy can form
Ocean currents

Ocean currents are the most important ocean movements

because of their influence on climatology of various regions.

Ocean currents are influenced by two types of forces namely:

primary forces that initiate the movement of water;
secondary forces that influence the currents to flow.

The primary forces that influence the currents are:

heating by solar energy; wind; gravity; Coriolis force.

The secondary forces that influence the currents are:

Temperature difference; Salinity difference
Primary Forces Responsible For Ocean Currents

Influence of insolation

• Heating by solar energy causes the water to expand. That

is why, near the equator the ocean water is about 8 cm
higher in level than in the middle latitudes.

• This causes a very slight gradient and water tends to flow

down the slope. The flow is normally from east to west.
Primary Forces Responsible For Ocean Currents

Influence of wind (atmospheric circulation)

• Wind blowing on the surface of the ocean pushes the water to move. Friction
between the wind and the water surface affects the movement of the water
body in its course.
• Winds are responsible for both magnitude and direction [Coriolis force also
affects direction] of the ocean currents. Example: Monsoon winds are
responsible for the seasonal reversal of ocean currents in the Indian ocean.
• The oceanic circulation pattern roughly corresponds to the earth’s atmospheric
circulation pattern. The air circulation over the oceans in the middle latitudes is
mainly anticyclonic The oceanic circulation pattern also corresponds with the
same.
• At higher latitudes, where the wind flow is mostly cyclonic, the oceanic
circulation follows this pattern.
• In regions of pronounced monsoonal flow [Northern Indian Ocean], the monsoon
winds influence the current movements which change directions according to
seasons.
Primary Forces Responsible For Ocean Currents

Influence of gravity
Gravity tends to pull the water down to pile and create
gradient variation.

Influence of Coriolis force

The Coriolis force intervenes and causes the water to move to
the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the
southern hemisphere.
These large accumulations of water and the flow around them
are called Gyres. These produce large circular currents in all
the ocean basins.
Secondary Forces Responsible For Ocean Currents

• Temperature difference and salinity difference are the

secondary forces.
• Water with high salinity is denser than water with low
salinity and in the same way cold water is denser than
warm water.
• Denser water tends to sink, while relatively lighter water
tends to rise.
• Cold-water ocean currents occur when the cold water at
the poles sinks and slowly moves towards the equator.
• Warm-water currents travel out from the equator along the
surface, flowing towards the poles to replace the sinking
cold water.
Types of Ocean Currents

Based on depth

• The ocean currents may be classified based on their depth

as surface currents and deep water currents:
• surface currents constitute about 10 per cent of all the
water in the ocean, these waters are the upper 400 m of
the ocean;
• deep water currents make up the other 90 per cent of the
ocean water. These waters move around the ocean basins
due to variations in the density and gravity.
• Deep waters sink into the deep ocean basins at high
latitudes, where the temperatures are cold enough to
cause the density to increase.
Types of Ocean Currents (Based on temperature)

• Ocean currents are classified based on temperature: as cold

currents and warm currents:

• Cold currents bring cold water into warm water areas [from high
latitudes to low latitudes]. These currents are usually found on
the west coast of the continents in the low and middle latitudes
(true in both hemispheres) and on the east coast in the higher
latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere

• Warm currents bring warm water into cold water areas[low to high
latitudes] and are usually observed on the east coast of continents
in the low and middle latitudes (true in both hemispheres). In the
northern hemisphere they are found on the west coasts of
continents in high latitudes.
General Characteristics of Ocean Currents

The general movement of the currents in the northern hemisphere is

clockwise and in the southern hemisphere, anti-clockwise.
This is due to the Coriolis force which is a deflective force.

A notable exception to this trend is seen in the northern part of the Indian Ocean
where the current movement changes its direction in response to the seasonal
change in the direction of monsoon winds.
The warm currents move towards the cold seas and cool currents towards the
warm seas.
In the lower latitudes, the warm currents flow on the eastern shores and cold on
the western shores.
The situation is reversed in the higher latitudes. The warm currents move along
the western shores and the cold currents along the eastern shores.
Convergence: warm and cold currents meet.
Divergence: a single current splits into multiple currents flowing in different
directions.
The shape and position of coasts play an important role in guiding the direction
of currents.

The currents flow not only at the surface but also below the sea surface (due to
salinity and temperature difference).
For instance, heavy surface water of the Mediterranean Sea sinks and flows
westward past Gibraltar as a sub-surface current.
Surface currents

• Winds blowing on the surface of the ocean push the water. Friction is
the coupling between the wind and the water's surface.
• A wind blowing for 10 hours across the ocean will cause the surface
waters to flow at about 2% of the wind speed.
• Water will pile up in the direction the wind is blowing.
• Gravity will tend to pull the water down the "hill" or pile of water
against the pressure gradient.
• But the Coriolis Force intervenes and cause the water to move to the
right (in the northern hemisphere) around the mound of water.
• These large mounds of water and the flow around them are called
Gyres. The produce large circular currents in all the ocean basins.
Eastern and Western Boundary Currents (westward
intensification)
Boundary Currents are the major geostrophic currents around the gyre.

Western boundary currents are much stronger and faster in

all the ocean basins.
The difference in strength between the eastern and western
boundary currents is caused by the rotation of the Earth,
which piles up water towards the western sides of ocean
basins.
Global ocean conveyor belt/ Thermohaline circulation

The global ocean conveyor belt is a constantly moving system of deep-

ocean circulation driven by temperature and salinity.

There is constant motion in the ocean in the form of a global ocean

conveyor belt. This motion is caused by a combination of thermohaline
currents (thermo = temperature; haline = salinity) in the deep ocean and
wind-driven currents on the surface. Cold, salty water is dense and sinks to
the bottom of the ocean while warm water is less dense and remains on the
surface.
Global ocean conveyor belt

The ocean conveyor gets its “start” in the Norwegian Sea, where warm water from
the Gulf Stream heats the atmosphere in the cold northern latitudes. This loss of
heat to the atmosphere makes the water cooler and denser, causing it to sink to
the bottom of the ocean. As more warm water is transported north, the cooler
water sinks and moves south to make room for the incoming warm water. This cold
bottom water flows south of the equator all the way down to Antarctica.
Eventually, the cold bottom waters return to the surface through mixing and wind-
driven upwelling, continuing the conveyor belt that encircles the globe.
 Turbidity Current
A turbidity current is a rapid, downhill flow of water caused by increased
density due to high amounts of sediment.

• Turbidity is a measure of the level of particles such as sediment, plankton, or

organic by-products, in a body of water. As the turbidity of water increases, it
becomes denser and less clear due to a higher concentration of these light-
blocking particles.

• Turbidity currents can be set into motion when mud and sand on the
continental shelf are loosened by earthquakes, collapsing slopes, and other
geological disturbances. The turbid water then rushes downward like an
avalanche, picking up sediment and increasing in speed as it flows.

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/turbidity.html
Major currents in the oceans

There are gyres in each of the oceans – The Pacific, Atlantic and Indian ocean.
(Any large system of rotating ocean current, particularly those involved with
large wind movements is called as a Gyre.).

Current direction: In general, currents in the northern hemisphere travel in

the clockwise direction in a gyre, while currents in southern hemisphere travel
in the anti-clockwise direction ( the only exception is the current direction in
the Indian ocean, which changes seasonally.)

Current temperature: In general, currents in the western part of every

continent are cold

Currents coming from the polar region are generally cold.

Currents near to equator are generally warm.
There is a counter-equatorial current, which moves from west to east (warm).
Major currents in the world oceans
North Equatorial Current
It is a significant Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean current that flows from east to
west.
They flow in between 100 north and 20 north latitudes.
Despite its name, the North Equatorial Current is not connected to the equator.
In both oceans, it is separated from the equatorial circulation by the equatorial
countercurrent, which flows eastward.

South Equatorial Current

It is a significant ocean current in the Pacific, Atlantic and the Indian Ocean that
flows from east to west.
They flow in between the equator and about 200 south.
In the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, it extends across the equator to about 50
north.
Equatorial Counter Current
It is an eastward flowing current found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific
Oceans.
It is found in between the North Equatorial and South Equatorial Currents at
about 3-10 northern latitudes.
This counter-current replaces the water removed from the eastern side of the
ocean by the North Equatorial and South Equatorial Currents.
In the Indian Ocean, the current tends to reverse hemispheres seasonally due to
the impact of reversing Asian monsoons.

Antarctic Circumpolar Current or West Wind Drift

It is an ocean current that flows from west to east around the Antarctica.
The current is circumpolar due to the lack of any landmass connecting with the
Antarctica and thus keeps warm ocean waters away from the Antarctica.