Lecture Three

Physical Oceanography
Natanah Gusha
[email protected]
Course outline
• General introduction
• Characteristics of seawater
• Currents
• Wind induced vertical circulation (Upwelling)
• Thermohaline circulation (subsurface currents)
• Mesoscale features (frontal systems, eddies)
• Regional oceanography (southern Africa)
 What are Ocean Currents?
• An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated
by a number of forces acting upon the water, e.g., wind, the Coriolis
effect, breaking waves, and temperature and salinity differences.
• Ocean currents are primarily horizontal water movements (but they can be
vertical too!)
• Shoreline configurations or topographic steering, and interactions with other
currents influence a current's direction and strength.
 Two types of Ocean currents
• They are two main types of ocean currents recognised:
• Surface currents: are currents in the top few metres down to the next layer which could
either be a layer with a different temperature or a more permanent saltier layer. involves the
horizontal movement of water above the pycnocline ( accounts for 10% of total water
movement).
• Deep water currents: These are linked to thermohaline circulation where
(thermos=temperature, haline=salinity)
• These currents involve the movement of water below the pycnocline (includes both vertical
and horizontal movement).

• Important to note that these two ocean currents do not act independently of one another!
• We shall learn more about these but before we do let us briefly the forces that drive these
currents
 The TWO key forces affecting the above ocean currents
1. Primary forces
• These include global wind patterns and thermal expansion. These forces initiate the movement
of water. When the wind blows over the sea surface it creates waves and a surface current.
• These forces affect the water movement above the pycnocline. However, the depth of the
surface layer is variable depending on factors such as seasonality and can be up to 100 m deep.

2. Secondary forces:
Influence the movement of water. Direction of water movement is modified by the
so called, “ Coriolis Force/Effect” and Ekman spiral/transport
• Ps…The surface current is also affected by the rotation of the earth which in turn causes the net
current to move at a 45-degree angle to the right of the wind direction (called Ekman spirals).
• These primary forces act together with one another.
Overview of Earth’s wind patterns

Trade Winds/Easterlies/Trades
& Westerlies

Key drivers

• Earth’s rotation
• Topographic steering
 Primary force: Wind patterns
• Surface currents generally move in the same
direction as the winds that created them.

• The trade winds create the equatorial currents

that flow east to west along the equator; the
North Equatorial and South Equatorial currents.
• If there were no continents, these surface currents
would travel all the way around the Earth,
parallel to the equator. However, the presence of
the continents prevents this unimpeded flow.
• When these equatorial currents reach the
continents, they are diverted and deflected away
from the equator by the Coriolis Effect; • At the same time, between 30-60˚ latitude the westerlies move surface water
deflection to the right in the Northern towards the east. The Coriolis Effect and the presence of the continents deflect
Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern the currents towards the equator, creating eastern boundary currents (on the
Hemisphere (Fig A). eastern side of the ocean basins)…(Fig B)
• These currents then become western boundary
• Since these currents come from the equator, they are warmwater currents,
currents; currents that run along the western side bringing warm water to the higher latitudes and distributing heat throughout
of the ocean basin (i.e. the east coasts of the the ocean.
continents). • We shall talk more about some of the resulting features a bit later
 Secondary force 1: The Coriolis effect
• The Coriolis Effect is a phenomenon that describes the
pattern of deflection taken by objects not firmly connected
to the ground.
• NB…The Coriolis effect is not a physical force, but a
result of different reference frames

• This is because every point on Earth must make a complete rotation

in 24 hours, but some points must travel farther, and therefore faster,
to complete the rotation in the same amount of time.
• In 24hrs a point on the equator must complete a rotation distance
equal to the circumference of the Earth, which is about 40,000km.
• A point right on the poles covers no distance in that time; it just turns
in a circle.
• So the speed of rotation at the equator is about 1600 km/hr, while at
the poles the speed is 0 km/hr. Latitudes in between rotate at
intermediate speeds; approximately 1400 km/hr at 30˚ and 800 km/hr
at 60˚.
• As objects move over the surface of the Earth they encounter regions
Watch short video here
of varying speed, which causes their path to be deflected by the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIyBpi7B-dE
Coriolis Effect.
 Secondary force 2: The Ekman spiral
• Winds blowing over the ocean are ultimately what create
the surface currents.
• The frictional movement of the topmost layer of water
sets in motion the layer directly underneath it, which
then sets in motion the next layer under that, and so
on as the water gets deeper.
• But at the same time, the Coriolis Effect deflects each
layer relative to the layer above it (again, to the right in
the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern
Hemisphere).
• The movement of the successive layers therefore creates a
spiraling pattern of water motion called the Ekman
spiral, which usually penetrates to about 100 m deep
before the motion ceases.
• If the magnitudes and directions of the movements of
each layer are added together, the result is that the net
movement of the upper 100 m of the water column is 90 ˚
relative to the original wind direction (90˚ to the right of
the wind in the Northern Hemisphere, and 90˚ to the left
in the Southern Hemisphere). This net water movement is
called Ekman transport
 So how do these forces play out?

• Together, these forces combine to create large-scale circular patterns of

surface circulation called GYRES.
• Essentially a Gyre is a circuit of mid-latitude currents around the
periphery of an ocean basin.
• There are 5 recognised gyres and the “special” West Wind Drift
• Plus there are 3 types of currents found within Ocean gyres,
• The Eastern Boundary Currents,
• Western Boundary Currents and
• Transverse Currents
Ocean gyres
Oceanic gyres play a critical role in
the global heat budget; (see Figure)

This contributes to structuring of

biological communities within the
world’s oceans.
• North and South Atlantic Gyre
• North and South Pacific Gyre
• South Indian Gyre
• Antarctic Circumpolar
Current/West Wind Drift
• In the Northern Hemisphere the gyres rotate to the right (clockwise),
while in the Southern Hemisphere the gyres rotate to the left
(counterclockwise).
 Watch short video

https://youtu.be/p4pWafuvdrY
The Gyres never stop moving…why?…Geostrophic flow
• An important phenomenon that shapes features within gyres Geos=Earth, Strophe=turning

• Gyre rotation or movement is dependent on Wind and the Coriolis Effect impacting the surface
currents….but the Ekman spiral is also very pivotal here…because

• During the formation of the Ekman spiral, water is piled up in the center of the gyre, making the water
level higher in the gyre center than on the edges of the gyres.
• This pile of water then has a tendency to flow back “downhill” due to gravity. As the water flows
“downhill” away from the gyre center, it is deflected to the right by the Coriolis force. This results in a
clockwise current around the central “hill” called geostrophic flow, which moves in the same direction
as the rotating gyre.
• Water is thus pushed into the “hill” by Ekman transport, and away from the “hill” by gravity, with both
flows modified by the Coriolis Effect to create the rotation.
• As with the gyres, geostrophic flow is clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and counterclockwise in
the Southern Hemisphere.
 Eastern Boundary Currents explained

 Eastern boundary currents are relatively shallow, broad and slow-flowing.

 They are found on the eastern side of oceanic basins (adjacent to the western
coasts of continents).
 Subtropical eastern boundary currents flow equatorward, transporting cold
water from higher latitudes to lower latitudes
 Coastal upwelling often brings nutrient-rich water into eastern boundary
current regions, making them productive areas of the ocean.
Can you identify 5 geostrophic / eastern boundary currents?
 Western Boundary Currents explained

• Strong, warm, concentrated, fast moving currents at the western

boundary of an ocean, (i.e., off the east coast of a continent).
• They are usually oligotrophic in nature
Can you Identify 5 Western Boundary Currents?
 Transverse Currents explained

• East to West or West to East current linking the eastern and western boundary
currents
• Examples include The North Equatorial and South Equatorial Currents
 Western vs Eastern Boundary Currents features
1 Sv = 106m-3 s-1

NB. Flow dynamics in both eastern boundary currents and western boundary currents are
determined by the presence of a coastline.
Announcements
• Class test- (Friday 16 August, 2024)
• Practical-Wednesday Afternoon, 2pm

• E-book uploaded on the course web page (ruconnected);

• “Additional readings” section on course web page;
• https://www.nature.com/subjects/physical-oceanography
• Any basic oceanography book- main library.