Which is a western boundary current?

Which is a western boundary current?

The Gulf Stream is a powerful western boundary current in the North Atlantic Ocean that strongly influences the climate of the East Coast of the United States and many Western European countries.

What are eastern and western boundary currents?

They fall into two categories: 1) western boundary currents, which are narrow, deep-reaching, and fast-flowing currents, not unlike jet streams, associated with current instability and eddy shedding; and 2) eastern boundary currents, which are shallow, cover a wider region, are of moderate strength, and are often …

Why are there western boundary currents?

In fact, they are among the fastest surface currents in the ocean. One reason for the westward intensification of boundary currents has to do with the strengthening of the Coriolis effect with latitude. The Coriolis effect is stronger in the latitudes of the westerlies than in the latitudes of the trade winds.

How do western boundary currents form?

Wind blows westward along the inter tropical convergence zone at the equator, causing western intensification. Wind blowing across the oceans mounds water on the western side of ocean basins-up to 2 meters. The mounding of water is caused by converging equatorial flow and surface winds.

What is a transverse current?

These constant global features are responsible for what are termed “transverse currents” — currents that flow in an east-west direction and link the eastern and western boundary currents.

What is a boundary surface current?

Boundary currents are ocean currents with dynamics determined by the presence of a coastline, and fall into two distinct categories: western boundary currents and eastern boundary currents.

Is the Peru Current a western boundary current?

Peru Current, also called Humboldt Current, cold-water current of the southeast Pacific Ocean, with a width of about 900 km (550 mi). It is an eastern boundary current similar to the California Current of the North Pacific.

Why should western boundary currents be concentrated and eastern boundary currents be diffuse explain using westward intensification?

Starts here6:46Western Boundary Intensification | Ocean currents – YouTubeYouTube

Is the Labrador current a western boundary current?

The major western boundary currents are (1) the Gulf Stream, which is the north-western part of the clockwise flowing subtropical gyre located between 101N and 501N (roughly); (2) the North Brazil Current, the western portion of the equatorial gyre located between the equator and 51N; (3) the Labrador Current, the …

Is the West wind Drift a current?

a current in the southern hemisphere moving from west to east at approximately 40°-55°S, caused by prevailing western winds. It encircles the earth, crossing the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans; the cold Bengal, West Australian, and Peru currents branch off from it in the oceans.

How many transverse currents are located in the equatorial area?

Characteristically, equatorial-current systems consist of two westward-flowing currents approximately 600 miles (1,000 km) wide (North and South equatorial currents) separated by an eastward-flowing countercurrent only 300 miles (480 km) wide.

What are the 5 major ocean gyres?

There are five major gyres in the world’s oceans: North Pacific Gyre South Pacific Gyre North Atlantic Gyre South Atlantic Gyre Indian Ocean Gyre

What are the four major ocean currents?

There are five major ocean-wide gyres—the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian Ocean gyres. Each is flanked by a strong and narrow “western boundary current,” and a weak and broad “eastern boundary current” (Ross, 1995).

What causes western intensification?

Western slowification. Western intensification also occurs in the polar gyres, where the sign of the wind stress curl and the direction of the resulting currents are reversed. It is because of western intensification that the currents on the western boundary of a basin (such as the Gulf Stream, a current on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean)…

What is the definition of a boundary current?

boundary current The northward- or southward-directed ocean-water current which flows parallel and close to a continental margin. Such currents are caused by the deflection of eastward- and westward-flowing currents by the continental land masses.