MAR 110 Natural Hazards & the Oceans

Tutorial #6

Ocean Circulation

Instructor: Prof. Dan MacDonald (dmacdonald@umassd.edu; 508-910-6334; ATT Suite 325)

TA: Georgia Kakoulaki (gkakoulaki@umassd.edu; 508-910-6366; ATT Suite 325)

1.Doldrums

2.Equinox

3.Solstice

4.Suptropical highs

5.Subpolar lows

6.Trade winds

7.Westerlies

8. Polar Esterlies

Summer Solstice

Winter Solstice

Do the same thing on these maps for the dates indicated.

  1. Are the counter currents always on opposite sides of the equator? Why?

  2. On the equinox, the counter currents flow more swiftly than they do on the solstice. How can Coriolis explain this? (Review where on Earth the Coriolis Force is absent and where strongest).

  3. If the Earth rotated in the opposite direction, how would this alter the flow of the gyres and the counter currents?

  http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0093-subtropic-highs.php

  http://oceanz.tamu.edu/~wormuth/geostrophictxt.html   http://www.iupui.edu/~g115/mod10/lecture04.html#   http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/print/students/currents/

currents3.htm   http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/analclim/

glbwnd.htm   http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/

visualizations/es1904/es1904page01.cfm