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Physical oceanography
The scientific study of the physical conditions and processes related to the motions and physical properties of ocean currents and waters.
Industry: Earth science
Add a new termContributors in Physical oceanography
Physical oceanography
California Coastal Ocean Observation System (CalCOOS)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The mission of which is to provide an observation–based description of the resources of California's coastal ocean in support of science, coastal resource management and emergency response.
DMS-cloud-climate hypothesis
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The main source of sulphate particles and CCN over the oceans is the oxidation of DMS. As such the DMS may determine the concentrations and size spectra of cloud droplets and therefore the cloud ...
Geostrophic adjustment
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The mutual adaptation of mass and momentum toward a steady geostrophic state in rotating fluids. The adjustment problem was first considered by Rossby (1938), who derived the geostrophically balanced ...
Detrital
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The most voluminous of three major components of deep sea sediments, the other two being authigenic and biogenic. Detrital material is derived from the mechanical and chemical fragmentation of ...
Paradox of the plankton
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The long–term coexistence of plankton species that might be expected to compete. This is due to the degree to which chance encounters dictate the degree to which intra– or interspecific competition ...
Lower low water (LLW)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The lower of two low waters on a day when the tide is neither predominantly diurnal nor predominantly semidiurnal but rather intermediate to either (a situation sometimes called a mixed tide).
Subtropical Convergence
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The name given by Deacon (Deacon (1933), Deacon (1937)) to the hydrographic boundary between the Southern Ocean and subtropical waters to the north. This was replaced by the term Subtropical Front ...
