The variation of water temperature in the top-most 100 meters of the deep ocean depends on the annual cycle of heating and cooling of the surface water and on mixing by the wind. Here we describe a laboratory model that uses salt instead of heat to produce density differences and that helps us to understand how the ocean's temperature structure changes with the seasons.
REFERENCES
1.
J.A. Knauss, Introduction to Physical Oceanography, 2nd ed. (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1997), p. 52.
2.
R. M.
Heavers
, “Convection in a continuously stratified fluid
,” J. Chem. Educ.
74
, 965
–967
(1997
).3.
J. S.
Turner
and E. B.
Kraus
, “A one-dimensional model of the seasonal thermocline
,” Tellus
19
, 88
–97
(1967
).
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© 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2003
American Association of Physics Teachers
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