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Introduction To Physical Oceanography

This 3 sentence summary provides the key information about the document: This document outlines the topics that will be covered in a Physical Oceanography course, including descriptive oceanography, dynamical oceanography, the ocean conveyor belt, waves, tides, coasts, and estuaries. It also discusses key concepts in physical oceanography like ocean dimensions, sea floor features, and methods for measuring ocean depth. The course aims to help students understand ocean physical behavior and dynamics and their influence on climate, weather, and sustainable food sources.

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M Farid Geonova
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81 views

Introduction To Physical Oceanography

This 3 sentence summary provides the key information about the document: This document outlines the topics that will be covered in a Physical Oceanography course, including descriptive oceanography, dynamical oceanography, the ocean conveyor belt, waves, tides, coasts, and estuaries. It also discusses key concepts in physical oceanography like ocean dimensions, sea floor features, and methods for measuring ocean depth. The course aims to help students understand ocean physical behavior and dynamics and their influence on climate, weather, and sustainable food sources.

Uploaded by

M Farid Geonova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ASSIGNMENT 01

KL2205 PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY

Alamsyah Kurniawan, Ph.D.

Muhamad Farid Geonova

15516024

OCEAN ENGINEERING PROGRAM

FACULTY OF CIVIL AND ENVIROMENTAL ENGINEERING

BANDUNG INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

2018
RESUME OF PHYSICAL OCEAOGRAPHY WEEK 1

Thursday, 18 January 2018

This course is divided into two parts, the Descriptive of Physical Oceanography and
Basic theory of Dynamical Oceanography. This course will encourage us to understand the
hypothesis of Ocean Conveyor Belt and its impact to Global Warming. In this course it also
covers the topic of general introduction about wave, tide, coastal and estuary.
Oceanography is the study of the ocean, thus recognizing its character as an
environment. The aim of study is to gather data sufficiently enough to predict the future
accurately. There are many types of Oceanography. Biological Oceanography, Chemical
Oceanography, Geological Oceanography and Physical Oceanography.
Physical Oceanography is the study of physical properties and dynamics of the ocean.
The main objectives of the study are the interaction between the ocean with the atmosphere,
the oceanic heat budget, water mass formation, currents, and coastal dynamics.
Why should we study Physical Oceanography? Because it could help us to get
Sustainable Food Source in the ocean. Also, the physical properties of the ocean influences
World Climate and Weather. Other than that, the study of Physical Oceanography has many
other diverse usages.
When comprehending Ocean Physical Behavior, we have to gather the data and the
theories first. And then we try to understand and analyze them either with Numerical Models
or with another tools of analyzation. The analyzation result will be used for prediction.
Ocean Physical Setting. Distances on Earth are measured in many different units, but
the most common one are latitude and longitude. Latitude specifies the north-south position
on the Earth, while Longitude specifies the east-west position on the Earth. Latitude distance
isn’t as the same as Longitude. 1 degree of Latitude is equal to 111 kilometers, while 1 degree
of Longitude is equal to 111 cos long. Further explanation can be read below.

There are also another units used for measuring Earth such as meters, miles and nautical
miles.
Ocean Dimension. The ocean and the seas cover 70.8% of the surface of earth (361 x
6 2
10 km ). It has an average depth of 3-4 km. The ocean is so thin, the horizontal dimension is
1000 times of its vertical dimension. While continents have a mean elevation of 1100 m, the
Ocean have a mean depth of -3400 m. The Pacific Ocean has a dimension of 181 x 106 km2.
The Atlantic Ocean has a dimension of 107 x 106 km2. The Indian Ocean has a dimension of
74 x 106 km2.
Sea Floor Principal Features. Sea floors are divided into several regions. Basins,
Canyons, Continental shelves, Continental slopes, Plains, Ridges, Seamounts, Sills and
Trenches.
Basins are deep depressions of the sea floor in a circular or oval form.
Canyons are relatively narrow, deep furrows with steep slopes, cutting across the
continental shelf and slope, with bottoms sloping continuously downward.
Continental shelves are zones adjacent to a continent (or around an island) and
extending from the low-water line to the depth, usually about 120 m, where there is a marked
or rather steep descent toward great depths. Continental slopes are the declivities seaward from
the shelf edge into greater depth.
Plains are very flat surfaces found in many deep ocean basins.
Ridges are long, narrow elevations of the sea floor with steep sides and rough
topography.
Seamounts are isolated or comparatively isolated elevations rising 1000 m or more from
the sea floor and with small summit area.
Sills are the low parts of the ridges separating ocean basins from one another or from
the adjacent sea floor.
Trenches are long, narrow, and deep depressions of the sea floor, with relatively steep
sides.
Ocean Depth Measurements. There are two ways to measure the ocean depth. The first one
is Echo Sounders, the second one is Satellite Altimetry.
Echo Sounders is used to maps majority of the ocean. It is first used by the US Navy
Destroyer Stewart in 1922. It’s the most accurate measuring device, with accuracy of ±1%
Satellite Altimetry is less accurate measuring device. But it can be used in a huge
area. It’s used to interpolate the gap between Echo Sounder measurement.

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