Ocean+Currents+and+Global+Heat+Transfer

Your topic deals with how the ocean's currents spread the heat around the globe. Greg Zlotnick, Troy Marrotte

Project Grade- Organization 3 /5 -Still looks like a bunch of indivdual thoughts stuck on a page. It needs a topic paragraph to introduce the main idea of the page. Climate change explanation 8 /10 -Data on the temps w/ and w/o currents? Oceanography explanation 12 /15 -Still no info on the specific currents except the Gulf Stream. The picture on the bottom may help but does not work! Diagram/connection to text 8 /10 -One good diagram w/ explanation but one that does not work but with explanation.

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**If there were no ocean currents, the world could quite possibly have a more universal climate. Much of the earths temperatures are reflected from the ocean currents. During the summer, the waters from the south are driven up the gulf stream. This brings warmer water temperatures and warmer air temperatures. Ocean currents help with the diversion of temperature. They move warmer waters north and colder waters south towards and away from the equator. IF there were no currents then there would not be such a drastic change during seasons. The water on the equator would potentially keep heating up, while the water at the pols continued to get colder.** =====

===="The side of the Earth facing the sun (the daytime side) recieves a tremendous dose of intense solar energy.this energy drives the global ocean-atmosphere engine, creating pressure and density differences that stir currents and waves in both the atmosphere and the ocean" (Chapter 7) The suns energy to the ocean causes differences in water temperatures. The warmer water at the equator flows along the Equitorial currents. The water either flows north away from the equator or south. This helps distribute the warm water with the colder. Ultimately this helps with the distribution of heat around the world.====

Oceans and Heat Energy
//**"The ocean can produce two types of energy: thermal energy from the sun's heat, and mechanical energy from the tides and waves. Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth's surface, making them the world's largest solar collectors. The sun's heat warms the surface water a lot more than the deep ocean water, and this temperature difference creates thermal energy. Just a small portion of the heat trapped in the ocean could power the world" **//The importance of this is that surface currents move the fastest. Having them get the most heat enables them to transfer it very well. //**(An excerpt taken from http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/oceanenergy) **//

The water heated by the sun that was described in the article excerpt is then transferred around the world's oceans via several ocean currents. **The focal point of the sun's heat energy distribution on the ocean's surface is at the equator.** The reason that the equator receives the most of the sun's energy is due to the fact that the sun's rays directly impact the point between the two hemispheres, this point (or more of a line that goes around the earth) is what we call the equator. **Whereas in the northern or southern hemisphere the sun's rays hit the earth at an angle, making them not as powerful, when the sun hits the equator the rays are dead on.** A diagram depicting how the suns rays impact the equator. The suns rays are absorbed more along the equater, this means that the water surounding the equator heats up the fastest. The suns rays that hit the poles are deflected more, due to their lower angles. If the currents did not exsist, than the oceans would have on temperature. Northern bodies of water recieve less direct sun light, which means they do not warm up as much. If the currents did not bring warmer water to the poles, then the ocean would freeze more. This picture shows a strong relationship about how the currents help with heat distribution. Currents bring warmer water where its cold, and brings colder water where its warm.

Ocean Currents Redistributed Heat During Rapid Warming and Cooling (An Excerpt)
[|http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/earth_][|sciences/report-30619.html] //**“'"You can make the climate cool in certain places just by redistributing the heat through changes in ocean currents, atmospheric circulation or both,” said Lynch-Stieglitz. “The most fully developed theory to account for these rapid climate changes is that they do represent changes in the transport of heat into the North Atlantic by what we call overturning circulation of the ocean.” __In that scenario, warm water flows northward from the Southern Hemisphere into the North Atlantic, where it gives up its heat. Being denser, the cooled water then sinks and flows back south. The scenario accounts for both heating in the north and cooling in the south."__  **// -By Jane M. Sanders

This diagram is portraying how heat is distributed via several separate ocean currents throughout the globe. (http://www.kidsgeo.com/images/ocean-currents.jpg) You can see in this diagram how generally it appears to be warmer, or at least the currents carry more warm water in the northern hemisphere as opposed to the majority of the currents carrying colder water into the southern hemisphere.