Experimental Ocean Current Lab
Oceanography 2
name____________________________
Goals: Obtain a better understanding of how atmospheric pressure, winds, SSTs, and ocean currents are
all interrelated.
This will be chaotic. The Google Earth kmz files are very big and may clog some computers.
You will have to be very careful about which of the layers and the order of the layers you are viewing.
Please tell your instructor where the instructions are not clear.
Press the little wrench on the time slider to get the options box to show up. Slide the “animation speed”
slider all the way to the left to make the animation speed as slow as possible.
Press Tools>Options>Cache and increase the memory cache to 1000 or as high as it will go.
All of the kmz files are on the MPC Oceanography web page under the“Drifter Lab”:
http://www.mpcfaculty.net/alfred_hochstaedter/oceanography.htm
In Google Earth, open the file
kml/MPCSpring2011.kmz
Look at how the wind arrows are aligned with pressure contours.
In a generalized sense, how are the wind arrows aligned with the pressure contours, and in relation with
the high and low pressure systems?
Look at the Sea Surface Temperatures. What is the relationship between the pattern of sea surface
temperatures to the winds along the coast of California?
Zoom in so that you can easily see the motion of the drifter. Can you see any relationships between the
motion of the seawater, as shown by the motion of the drifter, and SSTs? Look for evidence of water
masses (distinguished by different temperatures) following the drifter, or aligned in some way with the
drifter. What do you see? Draw a picture to help you explain.
What do you think this means? Why is the water behaving in this manner? Use evidence from both the
motion of the drifter and the SSTs.
The Fall 2009 Cape Fear Community College Gulf Stream Drifter
Load the file CFCCdrifterAll.kmz. Stretch the time slider tabs out until all the images are loaded. This
kmz file is a little bit different. In order to see the drifter location, you need to spread out the time tabs
just a little bit. Ask me if you have trouble.
What is the BIG DIFFERENCE between this drifter and the drifter deployed in the Pacific off of the west
coast of North America? Pretty impressive, isn’t it?
Note wind data from the two buoys. Does the wind seem to affect the motion of the drifters?
Can you see a relationship between the SSTs and the currents as shown by the drifter? If so, what is it?
Is there evidence of upwelling during this time period off of the east coast of North America? If so, what
is it?
Now that we have established that there are huge differences between the currents and SSTs off of the
east coast and west coast of North America, please answer the obvious question: Why are there such
differences in SSTs and currents? (Draw a picture if it would help you explain.)