- Industry: Education
- Number of terms: 34386
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Founded in 1876, Texas A&M University is a U.S. public and comprehensive university offering a wide variety of academic programs far beyond its original label of agricultural and mechanical trainings. It is one of the few institutions holding triple federal designations as a land-, sea- and ...
A graph showing the relationship between temperature and salinity as observed together at, for example, various depths in a water column. A T-S diagram for a given station is typically prepared by plotting a point for the temperature/salinity combinations at a range of depths and then joining them by straight lines in order of depth. The resulting line is called the T-S curve. Isopleths of constant density are often also drawn on the same diagram as a useful additional interpretation aid. In the ocean certain T-S combinations are preferred which leads to the procedure of identification via the definition of water types and water masses and their distributions.
Industry:Earth science
A Greek term for winds that blow at times in summer (May to September) from a direction ranging from northeast to northwest in the eastern Mediterranean. In Turkey these winds are known as “meltemi”.
Industry:Earth science
A group of marine organisms in the surface layers of the ocean which scatters sound. The layer may extend from the surface to depths as great as 600 feet, and several layers or patches may comprise the layer. There are also shallow and deep scattering layers.
Industry:Earth science
A group of water masses produced by modified Pacific water in the Kuroshio area in the eastern East China Sea. The four water masses comprising this are, from top to bottom: Kuroshio Surface Water (KSW), Kuroshio Subsurface Water (KSSW), Kuroshio Intermediate Water (KIW), and Kuroshio Deep Water (KDW). All four layers only exists in summer, as the KSW merges with the KSSW in winter.
Industry:Earth science
A high-frequency radar instrument that transmits pulses of energy towards the ocean and measures the backscatter from the ocean surface. It detects wind speed and direction over the oceans by analyzing the backscatter from the small wind-induced ripples on the surface of the water.
Industry:Earth science
A hot, dry, southernly wind which blows on the southeast coast of Spain in front of an advancing depression. It frequently carries much dust and sand, with its approach being signaled by a strip of brownish cloud on the southern horizon. This corresponds to the scirocco of North Africa and is named after the direction from which it blows. It is also known as the solano.
Industry:Earth science
A hypothesis advanced by Fuglister (1951) that the Gulf Stream system is irregular, varying and discontinuous east of the Grand Banks. The dearth of observations available in 1951 led him to suggest that an instantaneous chart, if available, would show a number of disconnected filaments of current rather than a continuous stream. This is an obvious foreshadowing of later developments predicated on more extensive theoretical and observational work that showed the instabilities to which the Gulf Stream is prone as it leaves the coast and heads east. It wanders and sheds eddies both north and south, processes that do indeed lead to the impression of a number of disconnected filaments.
Industry:Earth science
A hypothesized and modeled situation where the presently dominant mode of thermohaline circulation is unstable and evolves to a much weaker overturning circulation pattern.
Industry:Earth science
A hypothesized perpetual fountain where a long, narrow heat-conducting pipe inserted vertically through a region of ocean where warm, salty water overlies colder, fresher (and therefore denser) water. Water pumped upwards through the pipe would reach the same temperature as the surroundings at the same level (by conduction of heat through the wall of the pipe), while it remained fresher and therefore lighter. A fountain started thusly (in either direction) will continue to flow so long as there is a vertical gradient of salinity to supply potential energy. The idea was first advanced by Stommel et al. (1956) and is discussed in Turner (1973).
Industry:Earth science
A hypothesized situation in wave prediction methods in which storm duration and fetch are both long enough such that energy is being dissipated internally and radiated away at the same rate at which it is being transferred from the wind to the water in the form of waves. In a fully developed sea a steady state of maximum wave development is achieved.
Industry:Earth science
