- Industry: Earth science
- Number of terms: 10770
- Number of blossaries: 1
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The UK charity dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its wildlife.
A large scale, westward propagating wave that moves due to isentropic gradients of potential vorticity. Rossby waves are also called planetary waves. In particular, in the shallow water approximation, the waves move due to the variation of the Coriolis parameter with latitude, what is known as the ``beta''-effect. The dispersion relation in this approximation has frequency omega = -�eta k/(k^2+l^2) in which �eta is the meridional gradient of the Coriolis parameter, and k and l are the zonal and meridional wavenumbers, respectively.
Industry:Earth science
A large-scale atmospheric and hydrospheric fluctuation centered in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. It exhibits a nearly annual pressure anomaly, alternatively high over the Indian Ocean and high over the South Pacific. Its period is slightly variable, averaging 2. 33 years. The variation in pressure is accompanied by variations in wind strengths, ocean currents, sea-surface temperatures, and precipitation in the surrounding areas. The Southern Oscillation is coupled directly with the El Niño phenomenon, giving rise to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. See El Niño events and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
Industry:Earth science
A region of high pressure that occupies central Antarctic throughout the year. This pressure system is responsible for very cold temperatures and extremely low humidity.
Industry:Earth science
A relation bet ween the differential intensity (dE) of blackbody radiation within a narrow range of wavelengths; it is equal to 2ckT-4d, where c is the speed of light, k is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature, and d is the wavelength; the law is only experimentally valid for long wavelengths and leads to the ultraviolet catastrophe for short wavelengths.
Industry:Earth science
A system of ocean currents including the Kuroshio , Kuroshio extension , North Pacific current , and the lesser Tsushima current and Kuroshio countercurrent .
Industry:Earth science
A theoretical representation that a wind blowing steadily over an ocean of unlimited depth and extent and uniform viscosity would cause, in the Northern Hemisphere, the immediate surface water to drift at an angle of 45° to the right of the wind direction, and the water beneath to drift further to the right, and with slower and slower speeds, as one goes to greater depths.
Industry:Earth science
A tidal current that changes direction progressively through 360 degreesduring a tidal cycle.
Industry:Earth science
A warm, northward-flowing ocean current following the western coast of Japan. The Tsushima current branches off on the left-hand side of the Kuroshio flowing north into the Japan Sea.
Industry:Earth science
A warm, well-defined, swift, relatively narrow, ocean current which originates where the Florida current and the Antilles current begin to curve eastward from the continental slope off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. East of the Grand Banks the Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador current , and the two flow eastward separated by the cold wall . At about 40=AE$=AFN latitude, 50=AE$=AFW longitude, the Gulf Stream becomes the North Atlantic current which continues east-northeastward across the ocean. The Florida current, Gulf Stream, and North Atlantic current together form the Gulf Stream system . Sometimes the entire system is referred to as the Gulf Stream.
Industry:Earth science
A zone of convergence of warm surface water caused by Ekman transport, creating a marked depression of the ocean's thermocline in the affected area.
Industry:Earth science
