AMOC Or A Mock? - 5

Fig. 1 Earth One Waterfall

Are there waterfalls in the ocean like there are on the land surfaces of the Earth (Fig. 1)?

The thermohaline current hypothesis indicates that a huge current of water dives steeply from the ocean surface downward into the deeps diring the action called downwelling.

Then when that current is far away from where it dove into the deeps, it climbs steeply back up to the surface during what is called upwelling (AMOC Or A Mock?, 2, 3, 4).

I made a stark comparison (Fig. 2) that is an extreme form, but others have been more gentle in describing complications (e.g. Discussion of Neptune Effect, cf this).

It goes without saying that tremendous power is involved to bring large ocean currents into behaviors that resemble narrow water currents between riverbanks or forcing them up or down while maintaining the physics of the "current" we envision when we watch river currents flow by us.

Nevertheless that is what the current hypothesis, the conveyor belt hypothesis conjures up.

Fig. 2

Not only that, it conjures up the largest current on Earth, yes more than the Amazon river or Tagbo Falls (Fig. 1).

The doubts I have about this hypothesis are real:

"At the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO), physical oceanographer Nicholas Foukal is looking into this problem and untangling the many questions that surround it. An assistant professor in UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Marine Sciences, Foukal has spent the bulk of his professional career studying where, when and how the ocean transports its heat. 

'The AMOC is fascinating to me because of its scale,' Foukal said. 'It covers the entire North Atlantic basin and has enormous impacts on society, yet still so little is known about it. I am constantly discovering new aspects of the AMOC that we don’t know. This search for knowledge — and especially societally relevant knowledge — motivates me to continue researching the AMOC.' ”

(U.of.GA emphasis added). The graphic depiction at Fig. 2 illustrates the problem.

One researcher at the U. of GA quoted above states "I am interested in where, when, and how the ocean stores and transports heat" (N. Foukal), so I suggest to him a paper that explains it in modern quantum physics nomenclature (Potential Enthalpy: A Conservative Oceanic Variable for Evaluating Heat Content and Heat Fluxes) and (The Photon Current, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 , 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22).

Ocean Heat is infrared photons in motion that constantly move up or down or sideways or at all of the other 360 degree directions caused by the dynamics of The Second Law of Thermodynamics (hot flows to cold, warm flows to cool).  

Atoms in ocean water at any depth absorb and emit infrared photons, which is "ocean heat flux" whether those atoms are in a current or are stationary (heat flows from atom to atom via infrared radiation).

The previous post in this series is here.