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SC MSCI 314 - Western Boundary Currents Lab Report_MSCI314L

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Jena Brown MSCI 314L April 4, 2018Western Boundary currents: The Kuroshio CurrentWestern boundary currents are known from carrying warm water from the tropical equatorial zone to the cooler mid latitudes, influencing the surrounding water temperatures as well as the atmospheric temperature. Western boundary currents are generally warm in temperature, relatively fast in speed compared to other ocean currents, and they form on the western side of ocean basins. Western boundary currents acquire their speed due to being formed on the western side of an asymmetric and unbalanced side of a gyre (Wu, et. al., 2012). These gyres are called unbalanced because the Coriolis effect, which is stronger towards the poles than at the equator, causes a buildup of water towards the western boundary of ocean basins against land masses. This causes the ocean surface to be higher on the western side of the ocean gyre than on the eastern side of the gyre, thus forcing geostrophic flow on the western side of the gyreto speed up and intensify. One important example of a western boundary current in the northern hemisphere is the Kuroshio current which runs for 300km along the western edge of the Pacific Ocean basin off theeast coast of Japan. This massive current carries the same amount of volume as roughly six hundred large rivers. Although it transports a huge volume of water every day, the Kuroshio current is a slim band less than 100km in width and about 1km at its maximum depth (Barkley, R. A., 1970). Like other western boundary currents, the Kuroshio current carries warm water from the equatorial zone where the traded winds blow, up into the mid-latitudes of the westerlies.This transport of warm water by the Kuroshio current drastically influences the temperature, weather, and productivity off the coast of Japan and its surrounding land masses. Because of this,the Kuroshio current impacts everyday life of many, especially fishermen and farmers in eastern Asia. It is said that the success of Farmers in northern Japan may be contingent on the degree toJena Brown MSCI 314L April 4, 2018which the Kuroshio runs north along Japan's east coast since water temperatures offshore powerfully effect cloud cover and precipitation, which in turn impact the success of a harvest. Wu, L., Cai, W., Zhang, L., Nakamura, H., Timmermann, A., Joyce, T., McPhaden, M. J., Alexander, M., Qiu, B., Visbeck, M, Chang, P., and Giese, B. 2012. Enhanced Warming Over the Global Subtropical Western Boundary Currents. Nature Climate Change. 2: 161–166. doi:10.1038/nclimate1353Barkley, R. A. 1970. The Kuroshio Current. Science Journal. 6:


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SC MSCI 314 - Western Boundary Currents Lab Report_MSCI314L

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