The oceans cover more than 70 per cent of our planet. In this free course, The oceans, you will learn about the depths of the oceans and the properties of the water that fills them, what drives the ocean circulation and how the oceans influence our climate.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 The effect of the oceans on climate
- 1 The effect of the oceans on climate
- 1.1 Summary of Section 1
- 2 Mapping the oceans
- 2 Mapping the oceans
- 2.1 Mapping the deep
- 2.1.1 Bathymetry techniques
- 2.1.2 Bathymetric data online
- 2.2 Summary of Section 2
- 3 Seawater
- 3 Seawater
- 3.1 Salt in the oceans
- 3.2 The density of fresh water and seawater
- 3.3 The surface properties of the oceans
- 3.3.1 The surface temperature
- 3.3.2 The surface salinity
- 3.4 The vertical distribution of properties
- 3.5 The water properties along the Atlantic Ocean
- 3.6 Summary of Section 3
- 4 Ocean currents
- 4 Ocean currents
- 4.1 The global surface circulation
- 4.2 The effect of the wind on the oceans
- 4.3 Ekman drift
- 4.4 Divergence and convergence
- 4.5 Surface water masses
- 4.6 The frozen seas
- 4.7 The global ocean circulation
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Acknowledgements
Tags
Related Courses
Related articles
Reviews
5.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review
4 rating at OpenLearn based on 30 ratings
-
An interesting short course, that took me far less than the estimated 15 hours. It will teach you about water temperature, salinity, density, and ocean currents and their effect on the climate in various parts of the world.
Mainly text-based, with various interesting videos. An activity using Google Earth was tricky to use as instructed, possibly because Google Earth has changed since the course was created.
