Image from a numerical simulation of an idealized, wind-driven ocean basin
May 5, 2010
Image from a numerical simulation of an idealized, wind-driven ocean basin, calculated on massively parallel computers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Such computations capture the complex spatio-temporal variability seen in the Earth's oceans, allowing a better understanding of the Earth's climate system.
Pictured is the vorticity at the surface of the ocean, with red indicating clockwise rotation and blue indicating counter-clockwise rotation. Many small coherent eddies are visible. These eddies can rotate in either direction and can endure for a year or more. The sharp boundary between the broad red and blue regions is a fast-moving meandering jet, analogous to the North Atlantic Gulf Stream.
This research was funded by National Science Foundation grant OCE 98-18839. (Year of image: 2001)
Pictured is the vorticity at the surface of the ocean, with red indicating clockwise rotation and blue indicating counter-clockwise rotation. Many small coherent eddies are visible. These eddies can rotate in either direction and can endure for a year or more. The sharp boundary between the broad red and blue regions is a fast-moving meandering jet, analogous to the North Atlantic Gulf Stream.
This research was funded by National Science Foundation grant OCE 98-18839. (Year of image: 2001)
Topics:
Environment, Physics, Atmospheric dynamics, Fluid dynamics, Earth, wind, Gulf Stream, Eddy, Vorticity, Ocean currents, Vortices, Planetary science, Nature
