South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project Workshop Round Four

The waters of the ocean are continually moving. This motion ranges from powerful currents like the Gulf Stream, down to small swirls and eddies. What drives all this motion? The short answer is energy from the sun, and the rotation of the Earth. The most obvious way in which the Sun drives the oceanic circulation of the atmosphere that is, winds. Energy is transferred from winds to the upper layers of the ocean through frictional coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere at the sea surface. Another way is by causing variations in the temperature and salinity of seawater which in turn control its density.