Physical Oceanography

Valérie Garnier – IFREMER

([email protected])

Guillaume Charria – IFREMER

([email protected])
 Course content

1) Ocean knowledge

2) Physical properties of sea water

3) Water masses

4) Dynamics of a rotated fluid

5) Geostrophy

6) Wind forcing

7) Waves in geophysical fluid

8) Ocean-atmosphere interaction
 Course content

A) Properties of pure water, consequence for the ocean

B) Sea surface temperature and salinity

C) Notions on pressure density and stratification

D) Vertical distribution

5) Hydrology
 Origin of the atmosphere and oceans
The planet Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago. It consisted of a central core composed of
the heaviest elements (iron, nickel), wrapped in a coat (iron, magnesium, silica), itself topped
by a thin crust (silica, alumina, ..).
The temperature was then very high. The intense volcanic activity allowed an escape of gas
from the center of the Earth from its formation to form an atmospheric envelope composed of
water vapor and other gases (nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, ...). The planet was sufficiently
dense and large to retain that atmosphere. The water vapor condensed 400 or 500 million
years later during a very strong cooling. Rain had continously fallen for centuries. Liquid water
then appeared on the planet and the ocean was formed.

The degassing rate has steadily decreased with time as the radioactive elements, largely
responsible for the internal heat of the Earth, decreased. Originally, these radioactive elements
were much more numerous, as the convection within the mantle of the Earth was much more
vigorous and the degassing faster. It is estimated that the majority of atmospheric gases and
water, retained within the Earth, were released 2.5 billion years ago. Degassing continues today
but to a lesser degree.

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 Course content

A) Properties of pure water, consequence for the ocean

B) Sea surface temperature and salinity

C) Notions on pressure density and stratification

D) Vertical distribution

5) Hydrology
 Water properties ?
Highly mobile liquid

Water is essential for life

Poor conductor of heat
Good solvent
High specific heat

Pure water boils et 100°C and freezes at 0°C

High latent heat of fusion and evaporation

Light can only travel a

maximum of a few hundred Sound can travel
meters through water thousands of kilometres
through water
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 Fresh water thermal properties

Explanation ?

Structure tétraèdre
• densité de la glace + faible que eau
• chaleur latente
• chaleur spécifique

-89°C Vostok (1989) 8

 Fresh water properties
Fresh water temperature comprised between 0 and100°C

The water molecule (H20) originality is due to the special location of the 2
hydrogen atoms compared with the oxygen atom (angle of 104,5°):
• strong polarization
• high stability of the molecule

The polar structure is responsible of water

molecules attraction for one another and tends
to arrange themselves into partially ordered
groups, linked by weak intramolecular bonds
called hydrogen bonds. These laters induce a
noteworthy cohesion compared to other liquids.

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 Pure water properties
Fresh water temperature comprised between 0 and100°C

Water molecules tends to surround themselves with 4

other water molecules to form a tetrahedron.

The hydrogen bond can explain:

 High boiling point of freshwater
 High thermal capacity of freshwater
 The lower density of ice

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 Fresh water properties
Fresh water temperature comprised between 0 and100°C

• in ice, the network is less dense : water freezing diminishes volumic mass by
about 10% Ice floats, which has substancial climate consequences,
• during ice melting, from 0° to 4°C, individual molecules can fit together more
closely (the ordering effect predominates) and the water density increases.
Consequently, in a frozen freshwater lake, the water is warmer at the floor (4°C)
than at the surface (0°C)
• above 4°C in water, the thermal expansion is more important and the water
density decreases.

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 Fresh water thermal properties
Heat capacity, or thermal capacity
It is a measurable physical quantity : it's the ratio of the heat added
to (or subtracted from) an object to the resulting temperature
change. The SI unit of heat capacity is joule per kelvin (J K-1), and
the dimensional form is M1L2T−2Θ−1 (kg m2 s-2 K-1).

Water has a high thermal capacity : it absorbs the most part of the
solar radiation by changing it into internal energy in the first
surface meters.

Specific heat : 4.18 103 J kg-1 K-1

Amount of heat required to raise the temperature of unit mass of a
substance by one degree

Highest of all solids and liquids (except NH3 liquid). 4 times higher
than air specific heat.
Prevents extreme ranges in temperature. Heat transfer by water
movements is very large and tends to maintain uniform body
temperatures
-89°C Vostok (1989) 12
 Fresh water thermal properties
Latent heat of fusion : 3.33 105 J kg-1
Amount of heat required to melt unit mass of substance at the melting point at
constant temperature and pressure

Highest (except NH3).

Polar areas
• water freezes in winter : latent heat spreaded to the
surrounding atmosphere and water
• ice is melting : latent heat comes from the surrounding
atmosphere and water

Gain or loss of heat latent is due to a phase transition of frozen

water without temperature change. Seasonal variations of ocean
(and air) surface temperature remain low.

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 Fresh water thermal properties
Latent heat of evaporation: 3.33 105 J kg-1
Amount of heat required to melt unit mass of substance at the evaporation point
Chaleur latente d’évaporation : 2.25 106 J kg-1
at constant temperature and pressure

Highest of all substances

Heat latent transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere during sea
water evaporation.
• Loss of heat in the ocean.
• Ocean temperatures are generally lower than 3°C.

Latent heat is restored into the atmosphere during cloud

formation by condensation
• warming of the atmosphere

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 Fresh water thermal properties

Conduction of heat : 0,6 W m-1 K-1 at 20 °C

Highest of all liquids but water heat conduction remains low : although it is
import at small scale, molecular processes are dominated by turbulent
processes.

Pure water density : 1000 kg m-3

At 4°C and atmospheric pressure.

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 Conclusion on thermal properties of water
Importance of the oceans
Water exists at the surface of the Earth because surface temperatures are between
0 and 100° C virtually everywhere. Conversely, as the water is characterized by high
specific and latent heat, the oceans (that cover 70% of the surface of the Earth) are
involved in maintaining this temperature range.

Oceans are cold beneath the surface layers (which never reach more than a few
hundred meters) because oceans are heated at the surface and because the water
is a poor conductor of heat due to its low conduction of heat. The main way to
transfer heat down to the depths is not the conduction but the turbulent mixing.

The water features give the ocean, with a volume of 1.37 billion km3, the qualities
of a great temperature regulator (which "resists" to temperature variations). This is
an excellent agent storage and energy transport.

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 Fresh water properties
Molecular viscosity : 10-3 N m-2 (1 Pa at 20°C)

Less than most of other liquids at comparable temperature.

Motions quickly balance pressure differences.

Surface tension : 72,75 10 -3 N m-1 at 20°C

= expresses the difficulty to « break» the air-water interface.
Highest of all liquids.

Poorly compressible

Water is poorly compressible, but if it was not at all, ocean level might be 30
m higher.

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 Ocean properties
Ocean are never at rest because water is a highly mobile liquide : waves, tides,
current force the water to be in a perpetual motion.

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 Water properties
Light and sound in sea water

Air : Human sight and electromagnetic

 Light travels faster and penetrates radiation for scientific observations
further through the atmosphere than
does sound

The greater part of the ocean is almost

completely dark

Ocean : remote sensing of objects (e. g.

echo-sounding) and transmission of
information (e. g. ‘singing’ of
whales)

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 Water properties
Underwater light

Attenuation : exponential
decrease of light intensity
 (eu)photic zone : illuminated zone
in which light intensities are sufficient
for photosynthetic primary production
to lead net growth of phytoplankton

 Light perception by fishes and

crustaceans

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 Ocean properties
Ocean are dark under surface layers as light travels on relatively short distances
through water.

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 Temperature : explanation of the spatial distribution

Absorption of the incident solar radiation

Orange-red wavelenght are absorbed

Energy received at the sea surface

Incident solar radiation absorbed within the 1rst m

½ of incident energy is absorbed within10 cm
1/50 of incident energy penetrates down 100 m

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 Water properties
Sound propagation

Pressure variations propagate into the ocean at sound velocity of approximately

1500 m s-1.

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 Ocean properties

Wave guide

Marine mammals, noisy, can communicate as sound travels well through water.

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 Ocean properties
The oceans are essential and rich because water is the major constituent and essential
for all forms of life on Earth because water is a good solvent, the sea water is rich in
nutrients that are essential for living organisms .

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 Salinity

Salt origin
The presence of salts in the ocean goes back to the period of formation of the oceans. It
results from the dissolution of atmospheric gases and leaching of rocks by primitive acid
terrestrial waters.

Main dissolved salt in sea water are :

• Sodium chloride (77,8%),
• Magnesium chloride (10,9%),
• Magnesium sulfate (4,7%),
• Calcium sulfate (3,6%),
• Potassium sulfate (2,5%),
• Calcium carbonate, magnesium bromide,.. (0,5%)
Because of the sea water polarization, salts are ions, and these six major (Cl-, Na+,
K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42-) make up 99% of the dissolved constituents of seawater.

Chemical composition of sea water

The concentration of the major dissolved ions can vary from place to place in the ocean
but their relative proportions remain virually constant : Dittmar’s law
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• Ocean water is indeed a complex solution of mineral salts and
of decayed biologic matter that results from the teeming life in
the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual
processes such the breaking up of the cooled igneous rocks of
the Earth's crust by weathering and erosion, the wearing down
of mountains, and the dissolving action of rains and streams
which transported their mineral washings to the sea. Some of
the ocean's salts have been dissolved from rocks and
sediments below its floor. Other sources of salts include the
solid and gaseous materials that escaped from the Earth's crust
through volcanic vents or that originated in the atmosphere.
• http://www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salty_ocean.htm

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• Past accumulations of dissolved and suspended solids in the sea do not
explain completely why the ocean is salty. Salts become concentrated in the
sea because the Sun's heat distills or vaporizes almost pure water from the
surface of the sea and leaves the salts behind. This process is part of the
continual exchange of water between the Earth and the atmosphere that is
called the hydrologic cycle. Water vapor rises from the ocean surface and is
carried landward by the winds. When the vapor collides with a colder mass
of air, it condenses (changes from a gas to a liquid) and falls to Earth as rain.
The rain runs off into streams which in turn transport water to the ocean.
Evaporation from both the land and the ocean again causes water to return
to the atmosphere as vapor and the cycle starts anew. The ocean, then, is
not fresh like river water because of the huge accumulation of salts by
evaporation and the contribution of raw salts from the land. In fact, since
the first rainfall, the seas have become saltier.
http://www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salty_ocean.htm

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 Salinity

Measurement

• Weight of salts recovered after evaporation

• Chlorinity: quantity determination of a one of the ions making up the sea water (Chlorine
represents 55% of dissolved salts) to derive the total mass of dissolved salts through the
Dittmar’s law
• Electrical conductivity

While pure water is a low conductor of electricity, the presence of ions in seawater allows the
current to flow. In the 1930s, the conductivity of the sea water is connected to the salinity.
Conductivity varies with temperature, it is necessary to know it in hundredths of a degree,
and the pressure at which the measurement is made.

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 Salinity

Formal definition

Ratio of conductivity

R = Conductivity of a sample of sea water / conductivity of a standard KCl solution for which
the salinity (chlorinity) is known
Concentration of KCl de 32,4356 g kg-1

Salinity is deduced from the ratio of conductivity obtained at 15 ° C at atmospheric pressure

de 1013 hPa (1960s)

S = 0,0080 – 0,1692 R151/2 + 25,3851 R15 + 14,0941 R15 3/2 – 7,0261 R152 + 2,7081
R155/2

No unit !

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