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Question

I'm re-visiting the surface ocean currents on my world and was wondering about a few things. I know Ocean circulation is very complex and hard to say definitively what would happen but I think it's still fun to think/talk about. I've attached a map of the world with ocean currents and areas I'm thinking about highlighted (wind patterns in the background). For reference the circumference is 1.27x that of earths so the scale is a bit larger. Love to hear any thoughts.

Green: I'm not sure what way currents in these inland seas would rotate, I'm guessing the westerlies on the north coast of the northern sea would drive the rotation and the opposite for the southern sea. This does mean the currents run opposite to each other where the seas meet, however I'm thinking the connection point is so small it doesn't really matter.

Purple: I'm not sure If the westerly winds in the Ferrel cell would be enough to split this ocean gyre like this. I was watching Artifexians video on currents and he split all his currents at this latitude, however, some other people have told me that currents don't really split like that. There is also some landmass pushing the currents offshore, maybe that would help.

Yellow: I think this is the part I'm most confused about since it's a bit of a strange area (pole image attached to see it clearer). It looks to me that the currents would come in to the sea at the south pole via the larger gap but then the water would obviously have to go somewhere so I've got it kind of awkwardly exiting the ocean through the smaller gaps. Maybe currents in this sea wouldn't really connect to the outer surface currents.

Finally, Do you think I should figure out the annual changes in the ocean currents? I've seen some people do it. How much of the overall flow and characteristics actually change in summer vs winter?

Any other thoughts are also welcome.

Answer 1

A few thoughts

It is a little difficult to be (nearly) exact here, because there is not much known about water depths, salinity, stream speeds, geological structure (volcanism), polar ice regions, tropical regions and their temperature differences, axis tilt, influence of a moon (or moons).

• Overall your water flow seems to be consistent!

Take the following as thoughts on scenarios. It is not meant to "correct" anything. I am not a climate expert by profession.

• Depending on temperature zones, there might be different outcomes in the north-western hemisphere. The cold stream might not travel all the way at the north cost but might be countered by so much warm upstream from the equator that the flow starts to fall off at about the longitude of the continent in the south.

  • This would cause the central stream to be isolated from the rest and forming their own cycle (sea at the purple arrow).

• The south polar sea seems to me as being very "slow" almost dead in currents. It has some kind of warm water influx, but because of the landmasses and being close to the pole it lingers there, cools off, freezes maybe. This would be consistent with the yellow arrows indicating a low current out of the polar region. The faster currents on the outer sea will pull/suck the slower water from the pole region, but there probably is not very much exchange in total. If the temperatures or salinity is "strange enough", this might also form a barrier, so that there is almost no water exchange outwards (and this will propagate back to the influx as well). This is not necessarily a problem, just an interesting anomaly. It should lead to much south polar ice.

• The green arrows point to "seas" or "lakes" which have no contact to the other oceans, right? In this case it could be that there is no stream along the coastline. Rather the incoming warmth from the sun will heat the water gradually and the warm water will accumulate at the western half (given this fits with the planet's rotation). The eastern half will be a little colder, but the heat exchange is low in general and only circulates roughly in the middle of the lake. The development should be similar to our red, black and north+east seas. Having probably an overall different temperature and salinity then the rest.

  • Maybe there is some heat transfer by winds via the equator and land barrier of the smaller "green arrow sea" and from there to the larger one.

Answer 2

What do you want them to do?

Want them to switch with the seasons? We can help point out real life examples. Want them to stay near constant throughout the year? There is a likely explanation for it out there. Want them to switch between those two? A giant turtle is swimming around blocking the flow in one place or another. (or something else befitting of the story).

There is no option that is the better one, but what you want to do with them. You should ask yourself what part of your story they influence. If it is important to have them one way, then it shall be so.

Do they impact your story? Do you have a preferred choice? A preferred outcome? If not, just flipping a coin would do, we can help you think of the how it gets so. And help extrapolate how it affects your people from there. In any case: The ocean currents could work exactly how you want them to work.

As for the questions asked: It is kind of hard to estimate from this map, but isn't your circumpolar currents going the wrong way? I know very little about this, but using the knowledge of this site, shouldn't it go in opposite of your equatorial flow?