ocean current, stream made up of horizontal and vertical components of the circulation system of ocean waters that is produced by gravity, wind friction, and water density variation in different parts of the ocean. Ocean currents are similar to winds in the atmosphere in that they transfer significant amounts of heat from Earth’s equatorial areas to the poles and thus play important roles in determining the climates of coastal regions. In addition, ocean currents and atmospheric circulation influence one another.

The general circulation of the oceans defines the average movement of seawater, which, like the atmosphere, follows a specific pattern. Superimposed on this pattern are oscillations of tides and waves, which are not considered part of the general circulation. There also are meanders and eddies that represent temporal variations of the general circulation. The ocean circulation pattern exchanges water of varying characteristics, such as temperature and salinity, within the interconnected network of oceans and is an important part of the heat and freshwater fluxes of the global climate. Horizontal movements are called currents, which range in magnitude from a few centimetres per second to as much as 4 metres (about 13 feet) per second. A characteristic surface speed is about 5 to 50 cm (about 2 to 20 inches) per second. Currents generally diminish in intensity with increasing depth. Vertical movements, often referred to as upwelling and downwelling, exhibit much lower speeds, amounting to only a few metres per month. As seawater is nearly incompressible, vertical movements are associated with regions of convergence and divergence in the horizontal flow patterns.

Distribution of ocean currents

Maps of the general circulation at the sea surface were originally constructed from a vast amount of data obtained from inspecting the residual drift of ships after course direction and speed are accounted for in a process called dead reckoning. This information is collected by satellite-tracked surface drifters at sea at present. The pattern is nearly entirely that of wind-driven circulation.

At the surface, aspects of wind-driven circulation cause the gyres (large anticyclonic current cells that spiral about a central point) to displace their centres westward, forming strong western boundary currents against the eastern coasts of the continents, such as the Gulf Stream–North Atlantic–Norway Current in the Atlantic Ocean and the Kuroshio–North Pacific Current in the Pacific Ocean. In the Southern Hemisphere the counterclockwise circulation of the gyres creates strong eastern boundary currents against the western coasts of continents, such as the Peru (Humboldt) Current off South America, the Benguela Current off western Africa, and the Western Australia Current. The Southern Hemisphere currents are also influenced by the powerful eastward-flowing circumpolar Antarctic Current, which separates the Southern Ocean from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. It is a very deep, cold, and relatively slow current, but it carries a vast mass of water, about twice the volume of the Gulf Stream. The Peru and Benguela currents draw water from this Antarctic current and, hence, are cold. The Northern Hemisphere lacks continuous open water bordering the Arctic and so has no corresponding powerful circumpolar current, but there are small cold currents flowing south through the Bering Strait to form the Oya and Anadyr currents off eastern Russia and the California Current off western North America; others flow south around Greenland to form the cold Labrador and East Greenland currents. The Kuroshio–North Pacific and Gulf Stream–North Atlantic–Norway currents move warmer water into the Arctic Ocean via the Bering, Cape, and West Spitsbergen currents.

In the tropics the great clockwise and counterclockwise gyres flow westward as the Pacific North and South Equatorial currents, Atlantic North and South Equatorial currents, and the Indian South Equatorial Current. Because of the alternating monsoon climate of the northern Indian Ocean, the current in the northern Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea alternates. Between these massive currents are narrow eastward-flowing countercurrents.

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Other smaller current systems found in certain enclosed seas or ocean areas are less affected by wind-driven circulation and more influenced by the direction of water inflow. Such currents are found in the Tasmanian Sea, where the southward-flowing East Australian Current generates counterclockwise circulation, in the northwestern Pacific, where the eastward-flowing Kuroshio–North Pacific current causes counterclockwise circulation in the Alaska Current and Aleutian Current (or Subarctic Current), in the Bay of Bengal, and in the Arabian Sea.

Deep-ocean circulation consists mainly of thermohaline circulation. The currents are inferred from the distribution of seawater properties, which trace the spreading of specific water masses. The distribution of density is also used to estimate the deep currents. Direct observations of subsurface currents are made by deploying current meters from bottom-anchored moorings and by setting out neutral buoyant instruments whose drift at depth is tracked acoustically.

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