Changes in Ocean Circulation

This chapter discusses why ocean circulation is changing, the variabilities in monsoon systems, and the El Niño phenomena. Ocean circulation responds to the amount of sunlight on the ocean surface; the open ocean is more steady that the coastal ocean. The most dramatic changes happen in the northern Indian oceans, where there is a strong seasonally changing wind with the monsoon system. The El Niño-La Niña, also called the Southern Oscillation, is a good example of the inter-annually varying wind system in the Pacific Ocean and has a large effect on fisheries and precipitation. We will have to see how thermohaline circulation is affected by climate change. 

This video is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA license.