How do currents affect the world's climate?
342985
Ocean currents can change the supply of scf level wind, and thier volume density, the fresher the water the more water vapor we would have.  Like with the effect of global warming yes, if there is too much fresh water entered into the oceans due to the melting of the sea ice at the poles, then the Thermohaline will indefinately stop, which would affect what are weather is like.  The waters in the tropics will become massively warmer and the water near the poles would be colder, and in order for the world to balance that out, it will create more hurricanes, to pick up the slack of lossing its main currents.
115970
Yes.  It'll still get cold in winter.  We're talking about a change so far of 1-2 degrees.  It will still get cold for a long time to come, it's just that it will be a little less cold a little less often.  You're not going to notice it effecting day to day weather.  What's of more immediate concern is the rising sea level resulting from the melting of the polar ice caps.  This process will result in the gradual submersion of costal regions, and changes in ocean currents that will result in increased severe tropical storms.  This is what you're going to see first.  There's a long way to go (as in probably not in our lifetimes) before you'll start to see noticably higher day-to-day temperatures.\n\nAnd for anyone who says global warming isn't happening, I'd like to see an actual source supporting that claim (as in a web link or a scientific journal citation).  In all the studies I have seen indicating that global warming is not occuring have had serious methodological flaws, but it is impossible to argue with a mere assertion of knowledge.
573873
The Gulf Stream current is a powerful current of warm water than flows past the tip of southern Florida and up its east coast.  The Gulf Current brings warm water up from the equatorial region creating warmer weather in southern Florida during the winter months.  The current provides a very slight cooling effect during the summer months.\n\nBoth of these effects combine to give southern Florida a warm temperature with little fluctuation from season to season.
703666
Put simply, the earth spins from west to east so there is a drag of air (and water) from east to west as it partly resists the earth's motion.\n\nThis effect is most pronounced at the equator which is spinning fastest. Hence there are strong ocean and wind currents from east to west along the equator. The trade winds are sucked into the wake or tail of this from the north and the south. So in the northern hemisphere they are northeast to southwest, in the southern hemispere they are southeast to northwest.
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.
749020
Wind is the roughly horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface. It occurs at all scales, from local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting tens of minutes to global winds resulting from solar heating of the Earth. The two major influences on the atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet (Coriolis effect).\n\nGiven a difference in barometric pressure between two air masses, a wind will arise between the two which tends to flow from the area of high pressure to the area of low pressure until the two air masses are at the same pressure, although these flows will be modified by the Coriolis effect in the extratropics.\n\nWinds can be classified either by their scale, the kinds of forces which cause them (according to the atmospheric equations of motion), or the geographic regions in which they exist. There are global winds, such as the wind belts which exist between the atmospheric circulation cells. There are upper-level winds, such as the jet streams. There are synoptic-scale winds that result from pressure differences in surface air masses in the middle latitudes, and there are winds that come about as a consequence of geographic features such as the sea breeze. Mesoscale winds are those which act on a local scale, such as gust fronts. At the smallest scale are the microscale winds which blow on a scale of only tens to hundreds of metres and are essentially unpredictable, such as dust devils and microbursts.\n\nWinds can also shape landforms, via a variety of eolian processes.
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.
158964
Water retains temperature more than air, so the oceans stay warm in winter and cool in summer. They cool air currents that blow around the continents.
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
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.
354465
Actually both are true.  However, global warming and an impending ice age will not cancel each other out, as far as, average temperatures are concerned.\n\nGlobal warming, whether caused by mankind or nature, will usher in another global ice age.\n\nAlthough this sounds contradictory, there is an explanation that I will attempt to explain:\n\nAtlantic ocean currents circulate from the warmer southern Atlantic ocean northward to the colder waters.\n\nAs the warm waters flow north, they cool down, and thus, begin to sink deeper into the colder northern Atlantic waters.\n\nThis colder water then continues to flow southward, and thus, begins to warm up again the closer it gets to the equator, effectively creating a self-sustaining flow.\n\nAs this colder water warms up, it begins to rise toward the surface where it continues to get warmer.\n\nThen, these warmer waters are caught into the northern flow\nwhere they will eventually begin to cool down again, sink, and continue the flow back southward.\n\nIt is this flowing current from warm to cold to warm again that regulates our weather systems.\n\nNow then, as the Earth warms up because of global warming (manmade or otherwise,) the Atlantic current is in danger of being disrupted and stopped.\n\nWhy?  Because as the northern Atlantic waters warm up, there will be a point at which the northern waters are too warm for the water to cool and thus sink.\n\nOnce the northern waters stop sinking, the whole process will come to a screeching halt.  Therefore, no more Atlantic current.\n\nNo more Atlantic current will then halt the process of "warmer" waters from flowing northward.\n\nOnce this massive amount of warm, energy filled waters stops flowing north, the Northern Hemisphere will then start cooling down enough to mark the beginning of a new ice age. \n\nHope this helps...\n\n-AwareOne\nAwareones@yahoo.com
725902
Hi. They are surface currents. : http://www.answers.com/topic/mixed-layer
996989
The change in the water temperature (much warmer than usually) has not only an influence to the life in the sea (coral reefs dying) but also causes an increase in climate changes (extreme dry periods, tropical storms/typhoons).
967930
The earth has historically gone through cyclical climate changes and we my or my not be going through one now. As to what is causing this, we can only speculate. I don't think that all of the SUVs or hair spray in the world is going to change our climate.
865423
Weather is caused by so many different things. to name a few. atmospheric pressure, ocean currents, air temperature, solar output. i sugest you do some research online
301188
If you mean global warming, it's the scientific observation that the earth's temperature is rising over a period of time This is resulting in polar melting, raising the ocean level and affecting other weather patterns.
715107
The same as everywhere else.\n\nHigher wind speeds disperse pollutants.  Wind direction determines where pollutants go.