Ocean Currents - Salinity

Driven by Earth’s rotation and global wind patterns, and fueled by the Sun, ocean currents play an important role in driving Earth’s climate, weather patterns, and marine life. Because the Earth is spinning, the water feels the Coriolis effect. This pushes some of the strongest currents, like the Gulf Stream and the East Australian Current, against the east side of the continents. This visualization makes it easy to see how the ocean moves water across the planet. The ocean basins are like a big interconnected highway that transports nutrients, carbon and heat around the world. For instance, the Gulf Stream is a powerful current travelling northward from the Caribbean along the United States coast and across to Northwestern Europe. The Gulf Stream carries heat from the tropics toward far northern latitudes, making places like the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Scandinavia warmer than they would be otherwise.

This mesmerizing data visualization of ocean currents was created using a model called Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, or ECCO, for short. It's built using real world data from satellites, buoys and all kinds of other measurements. The ocean currents have been colored based on their salinity levels (measured in practical salinity units) in this version. Salinity, or the amount of salt in the water, impacts water’s density. The saltier and colder water is, the heavier it gets. As it gets warmer and fresh water gets mixed in, the water gets lighter. These changes in the heaviness or density of ocean water are what keep the ocean's conveyor belt turning. Streaks near the surface show how water is moving from one place to another. If you look close, you can see below the surface. Sometimes the water down deep is moving in a different direction, even the opposite direction. There are also two other variations of this dataset in a collection called Perpetual Ocean - one shaded to show temperature and another beauty version shaded for maximum visual appeal.

NASA’s ocean model, Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO)), was used to visualize the currents here. The ECCO ocean circulation model incorporates observations from spacecraft, buoys, and other in situ measurements to keep the model accurate. ECCO is a joint project between NASA/JPL and MIT. The model output used here is from ECCO-2 and covers the years 2021-2023.