File:Thermohaline conveyor belt (NASA).webm
Thermohaline_conveyor_belt_(NASA).webm (file size: 21.9 MB, MIME type: video/webm)
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Summary
DescriptionThermohaline conveyor belt (NASA).webm |
English: Thermohaline Circulation (The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt) This animation first depicts thermohaline surface flows over surface density, and illustrates the sinking of water in the dense ocean near Iceland and Greenland. The surface of the ocean then fades away and the animation pulls back to show the global thermohaline circulation. The oceans are mostly composed of warm salty water near the surface over cold, less salty water in the ocean depths. These two regions don't mix except in certain special areas. The ocean currents, the movement of the ocean in the surface layer, are driven mostly by the wind. In certain areas near the polar oceans, the colder surface water also gets saltier due to evaporation or sea ice formation. In these regions, the surface water becomes dense enough to sink to the ocean depths. This pumping of surface water into the deep ocean forces the deep water to move horizontally until it can find an area on the world where it can rise back to the surface and close the current loop. This usually occurs in the equatorial ocean, mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This very large, slow current is called the thermohaline circulation because it is caused by temperature and salinity (haline) variations. This animation shows one of the major regions where this pumping occurs, the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland, Iceland, and the North Sea. The surface ocean current brings new water to this region from the South Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and the water returns to the South Atlantic via the North Atlantic Deep Water current. The continual influx of warm water into the North Atlantic polar ocean keeps the regions around Iceland and southern Greenland mostly free of sea ice year round. |
Date | |
Source | NASA |
Author | NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC) and NASA's Earth Observatory. The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC). |
Licensing
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.) | ||
Warnings:
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This file, which was originally posted to
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003600/a003658/, was reviewed on 8 February 2021 by reviewer LicenseReviewerBot, who confirmed that it was available there under the stated license on that date.
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8 October 2009
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Date/Time | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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current | 00:44, 17 November 2020 | (21.9 MB) | imagescommonswiki>Epipelagic | Imported media from https://vimeo.com/480164464 |
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