11 Terms
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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
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Physical oceanography
Hough functions
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The eigenfunctions of a linearized form of the governing equations of motion on a sphere, i.e. Laplace's tidal equations, as first discovered by Hough (1898). Each Hough mode is a function of ...
North Pacific Current
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The eastward continuation of the Kuroshio and Oyashio Extensions, with which it forms the southern limb of the North Pacific subpolar gyre. This is a broad band of eastward flow around 2000 km wide ...
Panthalassa
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The Early Mesozoic world ocean. It was a single ocean reaching from pole to pole, probably consisting of single southern and northern gyres, deep water formation at both poles, and slothlike ...
Cyclonic
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The direction of rotation around a centre of low pressure. This is counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern. The term originates from the circulation observed around ...
Climate drift
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The divergence of a coupled atmosphere-ocean numerical model simulation from an initial or observed state due to imbalances between the components.
Eddy conductivity
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The exchange coefficient for the transfer of heat by eddies in turbulent flow, i.e. eddy heat flux. This is also called the eddy conduction coefficient. eddy diffusivity
Courant, friedrichs, and levy (CFL)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The discoverers of a time step limitation for numerical simulations of partial differential equations.
