17 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
Ocean troposphere
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The upper layer of the ocean as defined by Defant in 1928. The troposphere is a region of relatively high temperature where there are strong vertical and horizontal variations of properties. It is a ...
Trade winds
Earth science; Physical oceanography
The trade winds, or tropical easterlies, are the winds which diverge from the subtropical high-pressure belts, centred at 3-40° N and S, towards to equator, from north to east in the northern ...
Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A component of the U.S. Navy's Integrated Undersea Surveillance Systems (IUSS) network used for deep ocean surveillance during the cold war. SOSUS consists of bottom–mounted hydrophone arrays ...
Pilot Study for Intensive Data Collection and Analysis of Precipitation (PIDCAP)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A component study of BALTEX. The objectives are: to collection and analyse measured and estimated precipitation from different data sources; to compare different precipitation data sets against ...
Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A component of IGBP developed and sponsored by SCOR, the IOC, the ICES, and PICES. Its goal is advance our understanding of the structure and functioning of the global ocean ecosystem, its major ...
Deep Basin Experiment (DBE)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A component of WOCE focused on increasing the knowledge and understanding of deep circulation processes. The primary objectives were: to observe and quantify the deep circulation within an abyssal ...
RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System (RGPS)
Earth science; Physical oceanography
A computer system that takes RADARSAT SAR images of Arctic sea ice for input and creates geophysical data products for output. These include sea ice motion, the thickness distribution of new ice, and ...
