How Ocean Currents Can Effect Weather And Climate?

Oceans cover over 70 percent of the Earth's surface and play a major role in regulating weather and climate. Ocean water and currents affect climate because it takes far more energy to change the temperature of water than land or air, water warms up and cools off much more slowly than either. As a result, inland climates are subject to more extreme temperature ranges than coastal climates, which are insulated by nearby water.

Over half the heat that reaches the earth from the sun is absorbed by the ocean's surface layer, so surface currents move lots of heat. Currents that originate near the equator are warm; currents that flow from the poles are cold.

Winds which sweep off the sea can have a massive effect on the temperature. When the warm Gulf Stream moves Caribbean heat to the North Atlantic, the water cools and releases a tremendous amount of heat into the atmosphere. Winds blowing west to east carry this moist warmth toward Europe. Surface currents are primarily driven by atmospheric winds and flow in a circular motion. Cold surface currents flow from the polar latitudes towards the equator where they are heated and form warm ocean currents that flow from the tropics to higher latitudes.

Deep water currents are driven primarily by density differences brought about by heating and cooling; cold saline water is denser than warm fresh water and sinks at higher latitudes, where it then flows back towards the equator. As currents are heated at the equator, and flow to higher latitudes, they transport heat which warms the air and subsequently blows over and warms adjacent land masses.

Ocean currents affect the weather and climate in number of ways
1. Ocean currents are the source of regulating temperature on the earth. Ocean currents change the temperature of a particular region. 2. A warm ocean currents help the weather of the nearby regions to go up, where as cold ocean currents reduce the surrounding temperature. For instance the European coasts get warmth from the ocean current of Mexican Gulf stream.
3.Warm ocean currents passing through cold climate give it warmth and helps in sustaining the life in the freezing oceans.

The sun heats up the water and the heat goes to the equator and rises up.

Because the ocean currents control the heat of the planet.