5 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
Add a new termContributors in Physical oceanography
Physical oceanography
Multiple Current Hypothesis
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A hypothesis advanced by Fuglister (1951) that the Gulf Stream system is irregular, varying and discontinuous east of the Grand Banks. The dearth of observations available in 1951 led him to suggest ...
Salt fountain
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A hypothesised perpetual fountain where a long, narrow heat-conducting pipe inserted vertically through a region of ocean where warm, salty water overlies colder, fresher (and therefore denser) ...
T-S diagram
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A graph showing the relationship between temperature and salinity as observed together at, for example, various depths in a water column. A T-S diagram for a given station is typically prepared by ...
Leveche
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A hot, dry, southernly wind which blows on the southeast coast of Spain in front of an advancing depression. It frequently carries much dust and sand, with its approach being signalled by a strip of ...
Surface scattering layer
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A group of marine organisms in the surface layers of the ocean which scatters sound. The layer may extend from the surface to depths as great as 600 feet, and several layers or patches may comprise ...
Scatterometer
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A high-frequency radar instrument that transmits pulses of energy towards the ocean and measures the backscatter from the ocean surface. It detects wind speed and direction over the oceans by ...
Polar halocline catastrophe
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A hypothesised and modelled situation where the presently dominant mode of thermohaline circulation is unstable and evolves to a much weaker overturning circulation pattern.
