How do trade winds affect ocean currents?
6 min read
Asked by: Patrick Price
In the Northern Hemisphere, for example, predictable winds called trade winds blow from east to west just above the equator. The winds pull surface water with them, creating currents. As these currents flow westward, the
What currents are driven by the trade winds?
Trade winds drive both North and South Equatorial Currents westward, thus transporting warm ocean-surface waters in that direction.
What effect does ocean currents have on trade?
Currents help ships to sail if they follow the directions of the currents. Many warm currents keep the ports of Europe ice free even during the winters. This helps in trade and commerce. The ships face danger due to the fogs caused by the meeting of the warm currents with the cold currents.
How prevailing winds affect ocean currents?
Prevailing winds and surface currents
As the winds sweep across the ocean surface, they drive the ocean surface currents. Over periods of months to years they set up a global circulation of surface currents, which reflects the patterns of the prevailing winds.
How do the trade winds and the westerlies influence the ocean currents?
At depth, surface ocean currents die out just like particle motion associated with wave motion dies out. As a result of the Coriolis force, the Trade winds (tropical easterly winds) push surface water to the west and north while the mid-latitude westerlies push water to the east and south.
How do gyres affect ocean currents?
The ocean water generally stays in one place while the currents of the gyre circulate around it. Movement of Gyres Gyres are comprised of ocean currents that link up as they follow the coastlines of the Earth’s continents. Each gyre has a powerful western boundary current and a weaker eastern boundary current.
What are the causes of ocean currents?
Ocean currents are driven by wind, water density differences, and tides.
Oceanic currents are driven by three main factors:
- The rise and fall of the tides. …
- Wind. …
- Thermohaline circulation.
How are global winds related to surface ocean currents?
Surface currents are powered by the sun and driven by the wind. The sun drives the global wind systems on Earth. When this wind blows over the surface of the ocean, it causes waves to form and the water at the surface to move. The force of the wind pushing on the water results in what are known as surface currents.
What is the relationship between global winds and global ocean currents?
Large global wind systems are created by the uneven heating of the Earth’s surface. These global wind systems, in turn, drive the oceans’ surface currents.
What causes trade winds?
The Coriolis Effect, in combination with an area of high pressure, causes the prevailing winds—the trade winds—to move from east to west on both sides of the equator across this 60-degree “belt.”
Why are trade winds called trade winds?
The trade winds were named by the crews of sailing ships that depended on the winds during westward ocean crossings.
What two factors affect the density of ocean water and cause deep currents?
These deep-ocean currents are driven by differences in the water’s density, which is controlled by temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline).
What are the wind currents called?
In meteorology, air currents are concentrated areas of winds. They are mainly due to differences in atmospheric pressure or temperature. They are divided into horizontal and vertical currents; both are present at mesoscale while horizontal ones dominate at synoptic scale.
What are the two types of ocean currents?
There are two main types of ocean currents: surface currents and deep ocean currents. Surface currents are driven by global wind systems that are fueled by energy from the sun.
What is a deepwater current?
Unlike the wind-driven surface currents, deep water currents are driven by differences in water density: heavier water sinks while lighter water rises. The main determinants of water density are temperature and salt concentration; thus, the deep currents are thermohaline (temperature- and salt-driven) currents.
What is westerly current?
The westerlies, anti-trades, or prevailing westerlies, are prevailing winds from the west toward the east in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude. They originate from the high-pressure areas in the horse latitudes and trend towards the poles and steer extratropical cyclones in this general manner.
What causes trade winds?
The Coriolis Effect, in combination with an area of high pressure, causes the prevailing winds—the trade winds—to move from east to west on both sides of the equator across this 60-degree “belt.”
Where do trade winds meet?
the Intertropical Convergence Zone
These prevailing winds, known as the trade winds, meet at the Intertropical Convergence Zone (also called the doldrums) between 5 degrees North and 5 degrees South latitude, where the winds are calm.
What is the difference between trade winds and westerlies?
Trade winds are the winds that flow from subtropical high-pressure belts to equatorial low-pressure belts. Westerlies are winds that flow from subtropical high-pressure belts to subpolar/circumpolar low-pressure belts. Both are permanent winds.
How do trade winds affect climate?
Trade winds have a big influence on the climate to the north and to the south of the equator. The main effects are: Continuous removal of humidity from the areas around the tropics = desertification. Continuous supply of humidity to the equator region = rain forest.
What causes trade winds to weaken?
The strengthening and weakening of the trade winds is a function of changes in the pressure gradient of the atmosphere over the tropical Pacific. Ironically, the warming of the sea surface works to decrease the atmospheric pressure above it by transfering more heat to the atmosphere and making it more buoyant.
How are trade winds related to monsoon winds?
Explanation: Trade winds blow in the tropics throughout the earth. monsoon winds blow only in the indian ocean region during a particular season (northeast during winter and southwest during summer) and influence trade winds to cause complete reversal of direction according to the direction of monsoon winds.
What is the difference between trade winds and monsoon winds?
a. The easterly winds that blow in the tropics near the equator are called trade winds. a. Winds that blow from the Indian Ocean and South Asia and which carry moisture are called monsoon winds.
What are the trade winds quizlet?
The movement of cold water upward from the deep ocean that is caused by wind.
