Ocean Currents - Temperature

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 temperature in this version, ranging from 32 F (0 C) to beyond 77 F (25 C). These currents come together to form the global ocean conveyor belt, which transports water around the world, moving warm waters toward the poles and cold waters towards the equator. This transport of heat through ocean currents helps to moderate Earth’s climate. There are also two other variations of this dataset in a collection called Perpetual Ocean - one shaded to show salinity levels 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.