Why do surface currents affect climate on the continents

This illustration shows the major ocean currents throughout the globe. Ocean currents act as conveyer belts of warm and cold water, sending heat toward the polar regions and helping tropical areas cool off, thus influencing both weather and climate.

Download image jpg, KB. The majority of radiation from the sun is absorbed by the ocean, particularly in tropical waters around the equator, where the ocean acts like a massive, heat-retaining solar panel. Land areas also absorb some sunlight, and the atmosphere helps to retain heat that would otherwise quickly radiate into space after sunset. Those currents actually concentrate the garbage in garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific.

There's a similar one in all the oceans. And in fact do search and rescue when people are lost at sea, and a big part of that is predicting the ocean currents and we're pretty good at doing that in real time in the surface. There are still very mysterious things about the ocean currents that we don't understand, however.

I'm part of a program called Argo which is a program that is seeding the ocean with 4, robotic floats and they drift down at about six-tenths of a mile deep for day periods, and we can get a good sense of what the ocean currents look like down there. And there are these fantastic things that pop out that we had no idea were there. Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast.

Francesca Paris adapted it for the web. Skip to main content. Close close Donate. Listen Live: On Point. Close Close. On Point Value this story? Biological Nitrogen Fixation. Ecosystems Ecology Introduction. Factors Affecting Global Climate. Rivers and Streams: Life in Flowing Water. The Conservation of Mass. The Ecology of Carrion Decomposition. Causes and Consequences of Biodiversity Declines. Earth's Ferrous Wheel.

Alternative Stable States. Recharge Variability in Semi-Arid Climates. Secondary Production. Food Web: Concept and Applications. Terrestrial Primary Production: Fuel for Life.

Citation: Stevens, A. Nature Education Knowledge 3 10 Aa Aa Aa. Atmospheric Circulation. Figure 1: Cycle of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Areas in the tropics receive greater incident sunlight throughout the year, which causes water to evaporate.

Figure 2: Hadley cells and prevailing winds. Solar warming of the tropics drives atmospheric circulation in three cells. Figure 3: Distribution of arid land. Ocean Currents. Figure 4: Upwelling. As the trade winds blow warm surface waters away from the west coast of continents, cold, nutrient-rich water is drawn to the surface.

Global Climate. Figure 5: Milankovitch cycles. A High eccentricity in Earth's orbit takes it further away from the sun. Figure 6: Biogeographic realms. Variation in climate and presence of barriers to dispersal has led to six major realms of organisms. References and Recommended Reading Broecker, W.

The great ocean conveyor. Oceanography 4 , 79—89 Campbell, N. Biology , 7th ed. San Fransisco CA: Pearson, Stowe, K. Ocean Science. Article History Close. Share Cancel.

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