"the rotation of the earth. The sun acts as the primary driving force, causing winds and temperature differences. Because there are only small fluctuations in current speed and stream location with minimal changes in direction, ocean currents may be suitable locations for deploying energy extraction devices such as turbines. Other effects such as regional differences in temperature and salinity and the Coriolis effect due to the rotation of the earth are also major influences. The kinetic energy of marine currents can be converted in much the same way that a wind turbine extracts energy from the wind, using various types"
"bays in the same way as the astronomical tide. The Earth's rotation causes the Coriolis effect, which bends currents to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. When this bend brings the currents into more perpendicular contact with the shore, it can amplify the surge, and when it bends the current away from the shore it has the effect of lessening the surge. The effect of waves, while directly powered by the wind, is distinct from a storm's wind-powered currents. Powerful wind whips up large, strong waves in the direction of its movement."
"gently than, CMEs. Over the Sun's lifetime, the interaction of its surface layers with the escaping solar wind has significantly decreased its surface rotation rate. The wind is considered responsible for comets' tails, along with the Sun's radiation. The solar wind contributes to fluctuations in celestial radio waves observed on the Earth, through an effect called interplanetary scintillation. Where the solar wind intersects with a planet that has a well-developed magnetic field (such as Earth, Jupiter or Saturn), the particles are deflected by the Lorentz force. This region, known as the magnetosphere, causes the particles to travel around the planet"
"Northern Hemisphere tend to blow to the left of winds aloft. Ekman spiral The Ekman spiral is a structure of currents or winds near a horizontal boundary in which the flow direction rotates as one moves away from the boundary. It derives its name from the Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman. The deflection of surface currents was first noticed by the Norwegian oceanographer Fridtjof Nansen during the Fram expedition (1893–1896) and the effect was first physically explained by Vagn Walfrid Ekman. The effect is a consequence of the Coriolis effect which subjects moving objects to an apparent force to the"
"field in opposition to the Earth's magnetic field and so an Earthly observer would observe a decrease in the magnetic field in this area. The negative deflection of the Earth's magnetic field due to the ring current is measured by the Dst index. The ring current energy is mainly carried around by the ions, most of which are protons. However, one also sees alpha particles in the ring current, a type of ion that is plentiful in the solar wind. In addition, a certain percentage are O oxygen ions, similar to those in the ionosphere of Earth, though much more"
"associated with stronger winds. The Coriolis force caused by the Earth's rotation is what gives winds around low-pressure areas (such as in hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons) their counter-clockwise (anticlockwise) circulation in the northern hemisphere (as the wind moves inward and is deflected right from the center of high pressure) and clockwise circulation in the southern hemisphere (as the wind moves inward and is deflected left from the center of high pressure). A cyclone differs from a hurricane or typhoon only on the basis of location. A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean,"
"Earth experience a Coriolis force, and appear to veer to the right in the northern hemisphere, and to the left in the southern. Movements of air in the atmosphere and water in the ocean are notable examples of this behavior: rather than flowing directly from areas of high pressure to low pressure, as they would on a non-rotating planet, winds and currents tend to flow to the right of this direction north of the equator, and to the left of this direction south of the equator. This effect is responsible for the rotation of large cyclones (see Coriolis effects in"
"Ekman spiral The Ekman spiral is a structure of currents or winds near a horizontal boundary in which the flow direction rotates as one moves away from the boundary. It derives its name from the Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman. The deflection of surface currents was first noticed by the Norwegian oceanographer Fridtjof Nansen during the Fram expedition (1893–1896) and the effect was first physically explained by Vagn Walfrid Ekman. The effect is a consequence of the Coriolis effect which subjects moving objects to an apparent force to the right of their direction of motion in the northern hemisphere (and"
"land. This brings the sea breeze, air cooled by the water, ashore in the day, and carries the land breeze, air cooled by contact with the ground, out to sea during the night. Longitudinal circulation consists of two cells, the Walker circulation and El Niño / Southern Oscillation. Some more localized phenomena than global atmospheric movement are also due to convection, including wind and some of the hydrologic cycle. For example, a foehn wind is a down-slope wind which occurs on the downwind side of a mountain range. It results from the adiabatic warming of air which has dropped most"
"predicted the anomalies. Deviating from Newton's law, Einstein's theory of gravitation predicts an extra term of , which accurately gives the observed excess turning rate of 43″ every 100 years. The gravitational force between the Sun and moon induces the precession in Earth's orbit, which is the major cause of the climate oscillation of Earth that has a period of 19,000 to 23,000 years. It follows that changes in Earth's orbital parameters (e.g., orbital inclination, the angle between Earth's rotation axis and its plane of orbit) is important to the study of Earth's climate, in particular to the study of"
"force caused by Earth's rotation gives winds within high-pressure systems their clockwise circulation in the northern hemisphere (as the wind moves outward and is deflected right from the center of high pressure) and anticlockwise circulation in the southern hemisphere (as the wind moves outward and is deflected left from the center of high pressure). Friction with land slows down the wind flowing out of high-pressure systems and causes wind to flow more outward (more ageostrophically) from the center. High-pressure systems are frequently associated with light winds at the surface and subsidence of air from higher portions of the troposphere. Subsidence"
"larger, more consistent effect has been observed over many centuries: Earth's rate of rotation is inexorably slowing down. This observed change in the rate of rotation is attributable to two primary forces, one decreasing and one increasing the Earth's rate of rotation. Over the long term, the dominating force is tidal friction, which is slowing the rate of rotation, contributing about ms/day/cy or ms/cy, which is equal to the very small fractional change day/day. The most important force acting in the opposite direction, to speed up the rate, is believed to be a result of the melting of continental ice"
"to low pressure, as they would in a non-rotating system, winds and currents tend to flow to the right of this direction north of the equator and to the left of this direction south of it. This effect is responsible for the rotation of large cyclones (see Coriolis effects in meteorology). For an intuitive explanation of the origin of the Coriolis force, consider an object, constrained to follow the Earth's surface and moving northward in the northern hemisphere. Viewed from outer space, the object does not appear to go due north, but has an eastward motion (it rotates around toward"
"loss of atmosphere. On Earth, for instance, the interaction between the solar wind and earth's magnetic field deflects the solar wind around the planet, with near total deflection at a distance of 10 Earth radii. This region of deflection is called a bow shock. Depending on planet size and atmospheric composition, however, a lack of magnetic field does not fully determine the fate of a planet's atmosphere. Venus, for instance, has no powerful magnetic field. Its close proximity to the Sun also increases the speed and number of particles, and would presumably cause the atmosphere to be stripped almost entirely,"
"and the most closely related to human activities as it supports some of the most productive fisheries in the world. Wind-driven currents are diverted to the right of the winds in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect. The result is a net movement of surface water at right angles to the direction of the wind, known as the Ekman transport (See also Ekman Spiral). When Ekman transport is occurring away from the coast, surface waters moving away are replaced by deeper, colder, and denser water. Normally, this upwelling process occurs"
"it is used to refer to the meridional overturning circulation (often abbreviated as MOC). The term ""MOC"" is more accurate and well defined, as it is difficult to separate the part of the circulation which is driven by temperature and salinity alone as opposed to other factors such as the wind and tidal forces. Moreover, temperature and salinity gradients can also lead to circulation effects that are not included in the MOC itself. The movement of surface currents pushed by the wind is fairly intuitive. For example, the wind easily produces ripples on the surface of a pond. Thus the"
"According to the Kutta–Joukowski theorem, lift is the product of circulation, airspeed, and air density. The relative vorticity is the vorticity relative to the Earth induced by the air velocity field. This air velocity field is often modeled as a two-dimensional flow parallel to the ground, so that the relative vorticity vector is generally scalar rotation quantity perpendicular to the ground. Vorticity is positive when - looking down onto the earth's surface - the wind turns counterclockwise. In the northern hemisphere, positive vorticity is called cyclonic rotation, and negative vorticity is anticyclonic rotation; the nomenclature is reversed in the Southern"
"wind of this component has the amplitude ""u"" at the equator relative to the ground, where ""u"" > 0 indicates superrotation and ""u"" < 0 indicates retrograde rotation with respect to the solid Earth. All other wind terms merely redistribute the AAM with latitude, an effect that cancels out when averaged over the globe. Surface friction allows the atmosphere to 'pick up' angular momentum from Earth in the case of retrograde rotation or release it to Earth in the case of superrotation. Averaging over longer time scales, no exchange of AAM with the solid Earth takes place. Earth and atmosphere"
"the shapes of the continents and the rotation of the earth (the Coriolis effect). Deep-sea currents, known as the global conveyor belt, carry cold water from near the poles to every ocean. Tides, the generally twice-daily rise and fall of sea levels, are caused by the rotation of the Earth and the gravitational effects of the orbiting Moon, and to a lesser extent of the Sun. Tides may have a very high range in bays or estuaries. Submarine earthquakes arising from tectonic plate movements under the oceans can lead to destructive tsunamis, as can volcanoes, huge landslides or the impact"
"effect. While it is possible that the less significant, and originally overlooked, inclination variability has a deep effect on climate, the eccentricity only modifies insolation by a small amount: 1–2% of the shift caused by the 21,000-year precession and 41,000-year obliquity cycles. Such a big impact from inclination would therefore be disproportionate in comparison to other cycles. One possible mechanism suggested to account for this was the passage of Earth through regions of cosmic dust. Our eccentric orbit would take us through dusty clouds in space, which would act to occlude some of the incoming radiation, shadowing the Earth. In"
"waves and dominant wind. Accordingly, when the sea depth increases, the rotation of the earth changes the direction of currents, in proportion with the increase of depth while friction lowers their speed. At a certain sea depth, the current changes direction and is seen inverted in the opposite direction with speed current becoming nul: known as the Ekman spiral. The influence of these currents is mainly experienced at the mixed layer of the ocean surface, often from 400 to 800 meters of maximum depth. These currents can considerably alter, change and are dependent on the various yearly seasons. If the"
"Earth tide Earth tide (also known as solid Earth tide, crustal tide, body tide, bodily tide or land tide) is the displacement of the solid earth's surface caused by the gravity of the Moon and Sun. Its main component has meter-level amplitude at periods of about 12 hours and longer. The largest body tide constituents are semi-diurnal, but there are also significant diurnal, semi-annual, and fortnightly contributions. Though the gravitational forcing causing earth tides and ocean tides is the same, the responses are quite different. The larger of the periodic gravitational forces is from the Moon but that of the"
"radiation. This overall Earth energy balance, however, does not apply in each latitude due to the varying strength of the sun in each ""cell"" as a result of the tilt of the Earth's axis in relation to its orbit. The result is a circulation of the atmosphere that transports warm air poleward from the tropics and cold air equatorward from the poles. The effect of the three cells is the tendency to even out the heat and moisture in the Earth's atmosphere around the planet. Forcing is a term used by meteorologists to describe the situation where a change or"
"consistent interval. It is believed that the reversal is correlated to the Earth's mantle, although exactly how is still debated. Distortions to the Earth's magnetic field cause the phenomenon Aurora Borealis, commonly called the Northern Lights. The magnetic field stores energy given by cosmic particles known as solar wind, which causes the magnetic field lines to expand. When the lines contract, they release this energy, which can be seen as the Northern Lights. The Earth's climate changes over time due to the planet's atmospheric composition, the sun's luminosity, and the occurrence of catastrophic events. Atmospheric composition affects and is affected"
"the charged particles of the solar wind and cosmic rays that would otherwise strip away the upper atmosphere, including the ozone layer that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The Earth's magnetic field serves to deflect most of the solar wind, whose charged particles would otherwise strip away the ozone layer that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. One stripping mechanism is for gas to be caught in bubbles of magnetic field, which are ripped off by solar winds. Calculations of the loss of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere of Mars, resulting from scavenging of ions by the"
"Orbital forcing Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth's axis and shape of the orbit (see Milankovitch cycles). These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25% at mid-latitudes (from 400 to 500 Wm at latitudes of 60 degrees). In this context, the term ""forcing"" signifies a physical process that affects the Earth's climate. This mechanism is believed to be responsible for the timing of the ice age cycles. A strict application of the Milankovitch theory does not allow the prediction of a ""sudden"""
"pulses by rain drops can be avoided by using circular polarization. Just as specular reflection of circularly polarized light reverses the handedness of the polarization, as discussed above, the same principle applies to scattering by objects much smaller than a wavelength such as rain drops. On the other hand, reflection of that wave by an irregular metal object (such as an airplane) will typically introduce a change in polarization and (partial) reception of the return wave by the same antenna. The effect of free electrons in the ionosphere, in conjunction with the earth's magnetic field, causes Faraday rotation, a sort"
"the winds. Wind erodes the Earth's surface by deflation (the removal of loose, fine-grained particles by the turbulent action of the wind) and by abrasion (the wearing down of surfaces by the grinding action and sandblasting by windborne particles). Regions which experience intense and sustained erosion are called deflation zones. Most aeolian deflation zones are composed of desert pavement, a sheet-like surface of rock fragments that remains after wind and water have removed the fine particles. Almost half of Earth's desert surfaces are stony deflation zones. The rock mantle in desert pavements protects the underlying material from deflation. A dark,"
"the Earth tilts with respect to the Sun, changing the location of the major circles of latitude that are defined by the Earth's tilt (the tropical circles and the polar circles). In the case of the Earth, the principal sources of tidal force are the Sun and Moon, which continuously change location relative to each other and thus cause nutation in Earth's axis. The largest component of Earth's nutation has a period of 18.6 years, the same as that of the precession of the Moon's orbital nodes. However, there are other significant periodic terms that must be accounted for depending"
"shielding some of the Earth's surface from cosmic rays—of which are often incorrectly thought to be deflected by the magnetic field. The magnetic field—created by the internal motions of the core—produces the magnetosphere which protects the Earth's atmosphere from the solar wind. As the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, it would have lost its atmosphere by now if there were no protective magnetosphere. An electromagnet is a magnet that is created by an electric current. The Earth has a solid iron inner core surrounded by fluid outer core that convects; therefore, the Earth is an electromagnet. The motion of"
"of their associated cold fronts. The stronger the pressure difference, or pressure gradient, between a high-pressure system and a low-pressure system, the stronger the wind. The coriolis force caused by the Earth's rotation is what gives winds within high-pressure systems their clockwise circulation in the northern hemisphere (as the wind moves outward and is deflected right from the center of high pressure) and counterclockwise circulation in the southern hemisphere (as the wind moves outward and is deflected left from the center of high pressure). Friction with land slows down the wind flowing out of high-pressure systems and causes wind to"
"and radiation. Semigeostrophic frontogenesis theory focuses on the role of horizontal deformation and shear. Horizontal deformation in mid-latitude cyclones concentrates temperature gradients—cold air from the north and warm air from the south. Horizontal shear has two effects on an air parcel; it tends to rotate the parcel (think of placing a wheel at a point in space and as the wind blows, the wheel rotates) and deform the parcel through stretching and shrinking. In the end, this can also tighten temperature gradient, but most importantly, this rotates a concentrated temperature gradient for example, from the x-axis to the y direction."
"variation in the intensity of solar radiation calculated as the Earth's orbit evolves. If orbital forcing causes climate change, science needs to explain why the observed effect is amplified compared to the theoretical effect. Some climate systems exhibit amplification (positive feedback) and damping responses (negative feedback). An example of amplification would be if, with the land masses around 65° north covered in year-round ice, solar energy were reflected away. Amplification would mean that an ice age induces changes that impede orbital forcing from ending the ice age. The Earth's current orbital inclination is 1.57° (see above). Earth presently moves through"