<< BACK

To download image:

1. Click and hold down the mouse button on the image until a menu box appears.
2. From the menu box select 'Download image to disk', or 'Save image to disk'.
3. Select the location on your computer's hard disk where you want to save the image.

This image shows a "Southern Ocean oceanographer's view of the world."   Antarctica is in the centre.  Each of the ocean basins is shown as a spoke or wedge radiating out from the centre.   The coloured arrows show the flow of water of different density and temperature.  Water sinks from the sea surface to the deep ocean only in the northernmost Atlantic and at a few locations near the coast of Antarctica.  Lighter, warmer water flows towards these regions to replace the sinking water.  To close the loop, some of the dense water is converted back to lighter water in the Southern Ocean.  The big red arrow looping around Antarctica represents the Circumpolar Current.  By carrying water between the ocean basins, the Circumpolar Current plays a key role in this global "conveyor belt" circulation.  The conveyor belt, in turn, strongly influences our climate