What is western intensification?
What is western intensification?
The tendency of currents along the western margins of all oceans to be particularly strong, swift, and narrow, flowing northwards in the northern hemisphere and southwards in the southern hemisphere.
What boundary currents are affected by western intensification?
Sub-tropical western boundary currents are warm, deep, narrow, and fast-flowing currents that form on the west side of ocean basins due to western intensification. They carry warm water from the tropics poleward. Examples include the Gulf Stream, the Agulhas Current, and the Kuroshio Current.
What causes western intensification quizlet?
Western intensification causes: -Steeper slope of surface water in the section of the gyre as compared to the eastern section of the gyre. -Very swift western boundary currents. -A large volume of water within western boundary currents.
What causes the western boundary current?
The Coriolis effect is stronger in the latitudes of the westerlies than in the latitudes of the trade winds. Transport of surface waters toward the western boundary of the ocean basins causes the ocean-surface slope to be steeper on the western side (versus eastern side) of a gyre (in either hemisphere).
How do western boundary currents move water?
Western boundary currents are atmospheric heat sinks if they move cold water toward the equator, which occurs in the subpolar gyres, and atmospheric heat sources where they move tropical water into temperate regions, as in the subtropical gyres.
What are the 5 western boundary currents?
There are five major ocean-wide gyres—the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian Ocean gyres. Each is flanked by a strong and narrow “western boundary current,” and a weak and broad “eastern boundary current” (Ross, 1995).
What current flows along the western side of the US and how does it influence the West coast climate?
The Gulf Stream is a powerful western boundary current in the North Atlantic Ocean that strongly influences the climate of the East Coast of the United States and many Western European countries. Click the image for a larger view. One particularly powerful western boundary current is the Gulf Stream.
What effect does western intensification of the gyres have quizlet?
salinity and gravity. Western intensification causes: a steeper slope of surface water in the western section of the gyre as compared to the eastern section of the gyre.
Why are western boundary currents intensified compared to eastern boundary currents quizlet?
Why are western boundary currents intensified compared to eastern boundary currents? Earth rotates from east to west, pushing water more strongly toward the west. Earth rotates from west to east, pushing water more strongly toward the east.
How do western boundary currents impact climate?
It influences the climate of the east coast of Florida, keeping temperatures warmer in the winter and cooler than the other southeastern states in the summer. Since it also extends toward Europe, it warms western European countries as well.
Where do western boundary currents flow?
Where does western intensification occur?
In other words, the currents off of the east coast of the continents are more intense than currents off of the west coast of the continents. This phenomenon is known as western intensification , and once again it is due to the Coriolis Effect.
