how do ocean currents affect climate?
116177
The ocean currents are a major factor in the climate of this planet. Many regions experience weather patterns and temperatures that are related primarily to the effect of ocean currents. Other weather patterns like hurricanes and El Niño events are also strongly affected by ocean currents.\n\nOcean currents in the Northern Hemisphere circulate in clockwise patterns around the basins. These are known as gyres. The Gulf Stream which moves northward up the western side of the Atlantic Ocean basin is responsible for moderating and warming the climate of Ireland, England, and northern Europe. The equatorial currents that move westward across the Pacific Ocean are an intrinsic part of the climate patterns known as El Niño and the Southern Oscillation. This climate pattern effects North and South America, Australia, India, eastern Asia, and even parts of Africa. Even Western Europe can statistically relate flooding events to El Niño. In years when El Niño is active hurricanes in the Atlantic have been found to be less active. \nhttp://typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu/\n\nOne scientist proposed that sub sea eruptions along the East Pacific Rise might be creating large volumes of rising heated water that would periodically mess up the ocean currents and cause the changes of weather patterns associated with El Niño/Southern Oscillation events. Another scientist attempting to verify this discovered that the El Niño events actually precede swarms of seismic activity in that area, and suggested the El Niño may actually be triggering the sub sea volcanic eruptions by slight changes in sea level and water pressure over the mid-ocean ridges. \nhttp://ess.geology.ufl.edu/usra_esse/ENSO_Oceans.html\n\nAnother important ocean current circulates deep in the oceans and actually moves through each of the world’s oceans in a continuous slow-moving belt known as the Conveyor. This is driven by cold, salty, North Atlantic water that sinks and moves southward to the Antarctic, where it moves eastward into the Pacific, and then northward to the North Pacific, where it turns and moves back through the Indian Ocean and toward the North Atlantic again.  It is estimated that if the Conveyer were to shut down, the North Atlantic region would be 20 degrees F. colder within ten years, and much of Europe would have a climate more like northern Norway has today.\nhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/23/11/13.html
901542
It is not a place.  It is an atmospheric phenomenon.  It is a periodic weather pattern that results in more severe weathe patterns than normal.  This usually means heavier winds and rains during the season.\n\nIt is NOT an ocean current, although ocean currents are the reason weather patterns persist.\n\nThe pattern is not exactly repetitive, so it cannot be particulary predicted with any accuracy.  While some try, no one can really say that we are in an "El Nino" westher pattern until we are well in one.
870162
Very generally, west coast temperatures are dominated by the prevailing winds from the west, which bring in ocean-temperature air. The ocean has a larger heat capacity than the land, so it tends to stay cooler than the land in summer and warmer than the land in winter. Also, in the summer the Pacific tends to be cooler than the Atlantic, so the east coast has less relief from heat even on days when the wind is blowing from sea to shore.
98332
It depends: in the USA the west coast is colder than inland areas because the ocean temperature is relatively cold whereas the east coast is warmer than the inland areas because the gulf stream (a current that flows up the east coast from the warm Gulf of Mexico). So, it all depends upon the temperature of the water bordering the coastal area: for the west coast the ocean cools down the coastal area but on the east coast the ocean warms the coastal area. Obviously this all depends upon the time of year and the air temperature compared to the water temperature.
1008362
A lot of wind current is caused by temperature differentials between two or more areas.  The earth's rotation is also responsible for currents and jet streams.  I had a porfessor tell me that the same wind that is blowing now is the same wind that has been blowing for 4 billion years.
447836
The coastal areas are temperate and dry.  The Andes prevents moister air from the inland jungles from reaching the coast.  Ocean currents keep weather systems moving northward so away from the coast.
570474
Convection current is caused by the expansion of a liquid, solid, or gas as its temperature rises. The expanded material, being less dense, rises, while colder, denser material sinks. Material of neutral buoyancy moves laterally. Convection currents arise in the atmosphere above warm land masses or seas, giving rise to sea breezes and land breezes, respectively. In some heating systems, convection currents are used to carry hot water upwards in pipes.\n\nConvection currents in the hot, solid rock of the Earth's mantle help to drive the movement of the rigid plates making up the Earth's surface.  \n\nHope this helps!
860373
The most important change would be with the weather, for example California would have more rainfall but the east would have substantially less. This would also cause a shift in the ocean currents and the vast rivers under the oceans could be reversed causing further climatic change.
969461
The biggest problem is probably global warming. Global warming disrupts and alters the natural currents in our oceans. Cold water is more dense than warm water and rises. So if we mess up the currents, the living things within the water is disrupted.
92893
You need to concentrate your answer in the following areas:\n\n1) The effect of oceanic circulation.\n2) The role of water vapour as a greenhouse gas.\n3) The role of water as ice and cloud in increasing albedo\n4) The role of water in oxygen production, and hence the effect of oxygen on climte.\n5) The effect of life on albedo.\n6) The role of oceans as heat sinks and atmospheric buffers.\n\n\nWater also has a lot of small scale effects on climate of course, but I'm assuming you really do mean global climate.\n\n\n\n>>>>> countries which are surroended by large bodies\n>>>>> of water have more amount of rainfall than those \n>>>>> countries who are surrounded by land.\n\nNot at all. Australia and the Galapagos islands for example are surrounded by large bodies of water and both are primarily desert. Likewise Antarctica is surrounded by large bodies of water and is the driest place in Earth.\n\nIn contrast Switzerland and Paraguay are both completely landlocked countries that recieve large amounts of rainfall.\n\nWhile it is very broadly true that rainfall decreases with distance from the coastline there is ismply no way to extend this to making comparisons between countries or regions. Many coastal regions are far drier than many central continental regions. Ther are just  too many factors at play to make generlistaions about the effects of oceans on rainfall.
895587
Answer is C.\n\nThe seasons result from the Earth's axis being tilted to its orbital plane; it deviates by an angle of approximately 23.5 degrees of arc. Thus, at any given time during the summer or winter, one part of the planet is more directly exposed to the rays of the Sun (see Fig. 1). This exposure alternates as the Earth revolves in its orbit. At any given time, regardless of season, the northern and southern hemispheres experience opposite seasons (see Fig. 2 and Month ranges of seasons (below) and Effect of sun angle on climate).\n\nSeasonal weather fluctuations also depend on factors such as proximity to oceans or other large bodies of water, currents in those oceans, El Niño/ENSO and other oceanic cycles, and prevailing winds.\n\nIn the temperate and polar regions, seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight, which in turn often cause cycles of dormancy in plants and hibernation in animals. These effects vary with latitude, and with proximity to bodies of water. For example, the South Pole is in the middle of the continent of Antarctica, and therefore a considerable distance from the moderating influence of the southern oceans. The North Pole is in the Arctic Ocean, and thus its temperature extremes are buffered by the presence of all that water. The result is that the South Pole is consistently colder during the southern winter than the North Pole during the northern winter.\nThe cycle of seasons in the polar and temperate zones of one hemisphere is opposite to that in the other. When it is summer in the Northern hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa, and when it is spring in the Northern hemisphere it is autumn in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa.\n\nIn the tropics, there is no noticeable change in the amount of sunlight. However, many regions (famously the northern Indian Ocean) are subject to monsoon rain and wind cycles. Curiously, a study of temperature records over the past 300 years (David Thompson, Science, April 1995) shows that the climatic seasons, and thus the seasonal year, are governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year.\n\nIn meteorological terms, the winter solstice and summer solstice (or the date maximum/minimum insolation) do not fall in the middle of winter and summer respectively. The heights of these seasons occur up to a month later due to seasonal lag. Seasons though, are not always defined in meteorological terms; see reckoning\n\nCompared to axial tilt, other factors contribute little to seasonal temperature changes. It's a common misconception that the seasons are the result of the variation in Earth’s distance to the sun due to its elliptical orbit.[1] Orbital eccentricity can influence temperatures, but on Earth, this effect is small and is more than counteracted by other factors; research shows that the Earth as a whole is actually a few degrees warmer when farther from the sun.[2] Mars however experiences wide temperature variations and violent dust storms every year at perihelion.[3]\n\nYou could get more information from the link below...
704975
An ocean current is any more or less permanent or continuous, directed movement of ocean water that flows in one of the Earth's oceans. The currents are generated from the forces acting upon the water like the earth's rotation, the wind, the temperature and salinity differences and the gravitation of the moon. The depth contours, the shoreline and other currents influence the current's direction and strength.\n\nDescription\nOcean currents can flow for thousands of kilometers. They are very important in determining the climates of the continents, especially those regions bordering on the ocean. Perhaps the most striking example is the Gulf Stream, which makes northwest Europe much more temperate than any other region at the same latitude. Another example is the Hawaiian Islands, where the climate is somewhat cooler (sub-tropical) than the tropical latitudes in which they are located because of the California Current.\n\nSurface ocean currents are generally wind driven and develop their typical clockwise spirals in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere because of the imposed wind stresses. In wind driven currents, the Ekman spiral effect results in the currents flowing at an angle to the driving winds. The areas of surface ocean currents move somewhat with the seasons; this is most notable in equatorial currents.\n\nDeep ocean currents are driven by density and temperature gradients. Thermohaline circulation, also known as the ocean's conveyor belt, refers to the deep ocean density-driven ocean basin currents. These currents, which flow under the surface of the ocean and are thus hidden from immediate detection, are called submarine rivers. These are currently being researched by floating devices, which maintain their depth according to slightly differing densities of waters. Upwelling and downwelling areas in the oceans are areas where significant vertical movement of ocean water is observed.\n\nOcean currents are measured in Sverdrup with the symbol Sv, where 1 Sv is equivalent to a volume flow rate of 106 cubic meters per second.\n\nYou could get more information from the link below...
968670
Water in the sea can vary in salt concentration, temperature and in ion ratios. The first two create differences in the density of the water and therefore warm / less salty (light) water floats on cold/ salty (heavy) water.\n\nSince these currents do not mix easily, different ratio's of ions in seawater can maintain their difference. These differences are created by sources of ions (vulcanic activity which can create specific ions, incoming rivers) or by the fact that certain ion concentrations (HCO3-, HSOx-) are very temperature dependent. \n\nusefull info can be found on http://www.biosbcc.net/ocean/marinesci/02ocean/swcomposition.htm
819382
Hadley circulation of the atmosphere and ocean currents.
894097
This is what causes a surface current. \nAs winds blow across the ocean, there is friction between the wind and the water. Some of the energy of the wind is transferred to the water to make waves which travel across the surface of the ocean and some of the energy is transferred into surface currents.\nWhen currents run into something, like a continent, they must change direction. The current must turn right or left to form boundary currents or flow below the surface of the ocean to form a subsurface current.
119438
A wide variety of wierd things would happen.  For one temperatures would increase more and decrease to lower values on the sunlit and shaded sides of the world.  Ocean currents and weather patterns would change dramatically.  Winds would blow directly toward the equator in both the southern and northern hemispheres.  Large circular currents called gyres which exist in all ocean basins would dissapear.  The tides would also be much different because the earth's rotation strongly influences tidal characteristics.
20345
Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasons\n\nThe ultimate cause of the seasons is the fact that the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to its orbital plane; it deviates by an angle of approximately 23.5 degrees of arc. Thus, at any given time during the summer or winter, one part of the planet is more directly exposed to the rays of the Sun. This exposure alternates as the Earth revolves in its orbit. At any given time, regardless of season, the northern and southern hemispheres experience opposite seasons.\n\nSeasonal weather fluctuations also depend on factors such as proximity to oceans or other large bodies of water, currents in those oceans, El Niño/ENSO and other oceanic cycles, and prevailing winds.\n\nIn the temperate and polar regions, seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight, which in turn often cause cycles of dormancy in plants and hibernation in animals. These effects vary with latitude, and with proximity to bodies of water. For example, the South Pole is in the middle of the continent of Antarctica, and therefore a considerable distance from the moderating influence of the southern oceans. The North Pole is in the Arctic Ocean, and thus its temperature extremes are buffered by the presence of all that water. The result is that the South Pole is consistently colder during the southern winter than the North Pole during the northern winter.\n\nThe cycle of seasons in the polar and temperate zones of one hemisphere is opposite to that in the other. When it is summer in the Northern hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa, and when it is spring in the Northern hemisphere it is autumn in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa.\n\nIn the tropics, there is no noticeable change in the amount of sunlight. However, many regions (famously the northern Indian Ocean) are subject to monsoon rain and wind cycles. Curiously, a study of temperature records over the past 300 years (David Thompson, Science, April 1995) shows that the climatic seasons, and thus the seasonal year, are governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year.