Fig. 1 pelagic zones |
The graphic at Fig. 1 reiterates the common pelagic zones known to oceanographers.
The only difference I make is a minor one.
The Hadopelagic Zone depth is at "about 6000m" as it is described in the literature.
The WOD deepest section, which goes all the way to the bottom like the Hadopelagic does, begins at 5500m.
That is "about 6000m" so I use that WOD depth of 5500m as the beginning of the Hadopelagic.
Anyway, the few graphs today show the contrast between seawater at the poles compared to seawater at the equator.
Fig. 2a CT @ Layer 0 |
Fig. 2b SA @ Layer 0 |
Fig. 2c Thermosteric SLC @ Layer 0 |
Each section contains a CT graph, an SA graph, and a thermal expansion graph.
The graphs in each section are for only one of three layers (Layer 0, Layer 8, and Layer 16).
Layers typically have different numbers of WOD zones that contain data.
That is because of land masses and zones where no measurements have been taken yet.
What these three layers show is that the seawater at the poles is less stable in terms of temperature and salinity.
The warmer seawater at the poles is deep water, as is the seawater with the highest salinity.
The seawater at equatorial layers (layer 8, see Fig. 5) tend to be the opposite.
The fact that the poles are warming more than the rest of the globe probably has a lot to do with that contrast.
Compare the graph at Fig. 3a (Conservative Temperature at the equator) with the graphs at Fig. 2a and Fig. 4a and you will see what I mean.
Fig. 3a CT @ Layer 8 |
Fig. 3b SA @ Layer 8 |
Fig. 3c Thermosteric SLC @ Layer 8 |
Fig. 4a CT @ Layer 16 |
Fig. 4b SA @ Layer 16 |
Fig. 4c Thermosteric SLC @ Layer 16 |
The ocean current flowing around Antarctica (of which it is said "That single current moves more water than all the rivers on the planet combined" - Mysterious Zones of Antarctica - 2) is a factor too.
I now have a way of communicating those conditions in specific terms that the oceanographic community uses (Fig. 1).
In future posts I will describe and graph some of the other TEOS-10 variables that I calculate using measurements in the WOD datasets.
These preliminary graphs only display a few of the several values collected and stored.
They are all important.
Here is slice of a C++ program that has a list of the values that are collected and/or calculated:
"/****************************
in situ measurement values
*****************************/
double T [maxPelagicDepths];
/** ocean temperature (deg C) */
unsigned Tcount [maxPelagicDepths];
double SP [maxPelagicDepths];
/** practical salinity */
unsigned SPcount [maxPelagicDepths];
/************************
TEOS calculated values
*************************/
double SA [maxPelagicDepths];
/** Absolute Salinity (g/kg) */
unsigned SAcount [maxPelagicDepths];
double CT [maxPelagicDepths];
/** Conservative Temperature (deg C) */
unsigned CTcount [maxPelagicDepths];
double SVOL [maxPelagicDepths];
/** specific volume */
unsigned SVOLcount [maxPelagicDepths];
double density [maxPelagicDepths];
Fig. 5 WOD Layers |
unsigneddensityCount [maxPelagicDepths];
double tec [maxPelagicDepths];
/** thermal expansion coefficient */
unsigned tecCount [maxPelagicDepths];
double tsVol [maxPelagicDepths];
/** thermosteric volume */
unsigned tsVolCount [maxPelagicDepths];
double tsSLC [maxPelagicDepths];
/** thermosteric sea level change */
unsigned tsSLCcount [maxPelagicDepths];"
TEOS-10 is a very robust system.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.