Do water currents affect weather?
Ocean currents act as conveyer belts of warm and cold water, sending heat toward the polar regions and helping tropical areas cool off, thus influencing both weather and climate.
How do currents affect weather?
Ocean currents act much like a conveyer belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics. Thus, currents regulate global climate, helping to counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface.
What kind of currents happen at the bottom of the ocean?
Deep currents, also known as thermohaline circulation, result from differences in water density. These currents occur when cold, dense water at the poles sinks. Surface water flows to replace sinking water, causing a conveyor belt-like effect of water circulating around the globe on a 1000-year journey.
Does water temperature affect deep currents?
Deep ocean currents are density-driven and differ from surface currents in scale, speed, and energy. Water density is affected by the temperature, salinity (saltiness), and depth of the water.
How does the water cycle affect weather?
That fresh water hydrates the carbon-based lifeforms on earth. But through evaporation, and transpiration from plants leaf surfaces, it gets back into the atmosphere to feed clouds for the next rainfall. The cycling of liquid water and returning vapor creates our climate and our living environment.
How does ocean affect weather?
The oceans influence climate by absorbing solar radiation and releasing heat needed to drive the atmospheric circulation, by releasing aerosols that influence cloud cover, by emitting most of the water that falls on land as rain, by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it for years to millions of …
Are there currents in the deep ocean?
In contrast to wind-driven surface currents, deep-ocean currents are caused by differences in water density. The process that creates deep currents is called thermohaline circulation—“thermo” referring to temperature and “haline” to saltiness.
How do temperature and salinity affect deepwater currents?
A)They create density differences that cause dense deepwater currents to flow toward the equator where they displace less dense, warmer water above them. B)As temperatures and salinity levels of water increase, the water rises to the surface where it creates currents as it moves to colder regions.
What factors interact and influence weather?
Although many factors combine to influence weather, the four main ones are solar radiation, the amount of which changes with Earth’s tilt, orbital distance from the sun and latitude, temperature, air pressure and the abundance of water.
How does the water cycle affect weather and climate quizlet?
How does the water cycle affect weather and climate? The water cycle affects weather and climate through the transfer of heat and moisture between regions. As water is heated by the sun, it evaporates. The water vapor then condenses and forms clouds in the atmosphere.