Slide Show Air Temperature & Ocean Currents

• ​Changes to prevailing winds affect ocean currents.

• Changes to ocean currents affect how much energy is brought to (or taken from a location.

• If the ocean currents change, that means the amount of energy transferred to or away from a location will be affected.

​​The Impact of Prevailing Winds

• Tradewinds are defined as the prevailing winds closest to the equator.

• When an ocean current comes from the equator, it brings warmer-than-expected water to the places it passes, and that water is warmer than the nearby air.

​​The Effects of Tradewinds

• These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.

• Energy transfers from warmer substances to colder substances.

• Water stores energy very well: the ocean can absorb a lot of energy before it changes temperature.

• The amount of energy in the air of a location is affected by its latitude, which determines the amount of energy transferred to that location’s land and ocean water.

• Surface currents are set in motion by prevailing winds, which push the currents in the direction they are blowing.