Important announcement

Dear visitor,

Please note that this OpenCourseWare platform will be replaced at the end of 2026 by a new platform (under the same url ocw.tudelft.nl).

Courses and their contents that are currently available the platform will partly be migrated. URL’s for this content will change and content might be unavailable for some time. In addition, some courses will not be available anymore.

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Thank you.

2.3.1 Introduction to the Oceans

Course week(s) Week 2
Course subject(s) Water Systems

In the video below an Introduction to the oceans is presented to you.

Study Goals

After this lecture you will be able to understand:

  • The importance of the ocean in the water cycle
  • The role of wind in driving sea surface circulations
  • The role of the ocean as a driving force for weather and climate
  • The role of coriolis on the ocean

Optional video: Earth’s Water Cycle

For more information on the coriolis effect the following video is provided:

Description of the video:

Water is the fundamental ingredient for life on Earth. Looking at our Earth from space, with its vast and deep ocean, it appears as though there is an abundance of water for our use. However, only a small portion of Earth’s water is accessible for our needs. How much fresh water exists and where it is stored affects us all. This animation uses Earth science data from a variety of sensors on NASA Earth observing satellites as well as cartoons to describe Earth’s water cycle and the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth.
Sensors on a suite of NASA satellites observe and measure water on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere. These measurements are important to understanding the availability and distribution of Earth’s water — vital to life and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on a growing world population.
NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information Systems (EOSDIS)
EOSDIS is a distributed system of twelve data centers and science investigator processing systems. EOSDIS processes, archives, and distributes data from Earth observing satellites, field campaigns, airborne sensors, and related Earth science programs. These data enable the study of Earth from space to advance scientific understanding.

For more information about the data sets used in this animation please visit: http://earthdata.nasa.gov

Creative Commons License
Introduction to Water and Climate by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/introduction-water-climate/.
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