Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that

is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater

fluxes. The adjective thermohaline derives from thermo- referring to temperature
and -haline referring to salt content, factors which together determine the
density of sea water. Wind-driven surface currents (such as the Gulf Stream)
travel polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling en route, and
eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water). This
dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the
Southern Ocean, the oldest waters (with a transit time of around 1000 years)
upwell in the North Pacific. Extensive mixing therefore takes place between the
ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth's oceans
a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport both energy (in
the form of heat) and matter (solids, dissolved substances and gases) around the
globe. As such, the state of the circulation has a large impact on the climate of
the Earth.

The thermohaline circulation is sometimes called the ocean conveyor belt, the
great ocean conveyor, or the global conveyor belt. On occasion, it is used to refer
to the meridional overturning circulation (often abbreviated as MOC). The term
MOC, indeed, is more accurate and well defined, as it is difficult to separate the
part of the circulation which is actually driven by temperature and salinity alone
as opposed to other factors such as the wind and tidal forces. Moreover,
temperature and salinity gradients can also lead to circulation effects that are
not included in the MOC itself.

The movement of surface currents pushed by the wind is fairly intuitive. For
example, the wind easily produces ripples on the surface of a pond. Thus the
deep ocean devoid of wind was assumed to be perfectly static by early
oceanographers. However, modern instrumentation shows that current velocities
in deep water masses can be significant (although much less than surface
speeds).

In the deep ocean, the predominant driving force is differences in density,

caused by salinity and temperature variations (increasing salinity and lowering
the temperature of a fluid both increase its density). There is often confusion
over the components of the circulation that are wind and density driven. Note
that ocean currents due to tides are also significant in many places; most
prominent in relatively shallow coastal areas, tidal currents can also be
significant in the deep ocean.

The density of ocean water is not globally homogeneous, but varies significantly
and discretely. Sharply defined boundaries exist between water masses which
form at the surface, and subsequently maintain their own identity within the
ocean. They position themselves one above or below each other according to
their density, which depends on both temperature and salinity.

Warm seawater expands and is thus less dense than cooler seawater. Saltier
water is denser than fresher water because the dissolved salts fill interstices
between water molecules, resulting in more mass per unit volume. Lighter water
masses float over denser ones (just as a piece of wood or ice will float on water,
see buoyancy). This is known as "stable stratification". When dense water
masses are first formed, they are not stably stratified. In order to take up their
most stable positions, water masses of different densities must flow, providing a
driving force for deep currents.

The thermohaline circulation is mainly triggered by the formation of deep water

masses in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean caused by differences in
temperature and salinity of the water.

The great quantities of dense water sinking at polar ocean basin edges must be
offset by equal quantities of water rising elsewhere. Note that cold water in polar
zones sink relatively rapidly over a small area, while warm water in temperate
and tropical zones rise more gradually across a much larger area. It then slowly
returns poleward near the surface to repeat the cycle. The continual diffuse
upwelling of deep water maintains the existence of the permanent thermocline
found everywhere at low and mid-latitudes. This slow upward movement is
estimated to be about 1 centimeter (0.5 inch) per day over most of the ocean. If
this rise were to stop, downward movement of heat would cause the thermocline
to descend and would reduce its steepness.

Formation of deep water masses

The dense water masses that sink into the deep basins are formed in quite
specific areas of the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. In the North Atlantic,
seawater at the surface of the ocean is intensely cooled by the wind. Wind
moving over the water also produces a great deal of evaporation, leading to a
decrease in temperature, called evaporative cooling. Evaporation removes only
water molecules, resulting in an increase in the salinity of the seawater left
behind, and thus an increase in the density of the water mass. In the Norwegian
Sea evaporative cooling is predominant, and the sinking water mass, the North
Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), fills the basin and spills southwards through
crevasses in the submarine sills that connect Greenland, Iceland and Great
Britain. It then flows very slowly into the deep abyssal plains of the Atlantic,
always in a southerly direction. Flow from the Arctic Ocean Basin into the Pacific,
however, is blocked by the narrow shallows of the Bering Strait.

In the Southern Ocean, strong katabatic winds blowing from the Antarctic
continent onto the ice shelves will blow the newly formed sea ice away, opening
polynyas along the coast. The ocean, no longer protected by sea ice, suffers a
brutal and strong cooling. Meanwhile, sea ice starts reforming, so the surface
waters also get saltier, hence very dense. In fact, the formation of sea ice

contributes to an increase in surface seawater salinity; saltier brine is left behind

as the sea ice forms around it (pure water preferentially being frozen). Increasing
salinity lowers the freezing point of seawater, so cold liquid brine is formed in
inclusions within a honeycomb of ice. The brine progressively melts the ice just
beneath it, eventually dripping out of the ice matrix and sinking. This process is
known as brine rejection.

The resulting Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) sinks and flows north and east, but
is so dense it actually underflows the NADW. AABW formed in the Weddell Sea
will mainly fill the Atlantic and Indian Basins, whereas the AABW formed in the
Ross Sea will flow towards the Pacific Ocean.

The dense water masses formed by these processes flow downhill at the bottom
of the ocean, like a stream within the surrounding less dense fluid, and fill up the
basins of the polar seas. Just as river valleys direct streams and rivers on the
continents, the bottom topography steers the deep and bottom water masses.

Note that, unlike fresh water, seawater does not have a density maximum at 4
C but gets denser as it cools all the way to its freezing point of approximately
-1.8 C.

Movement of deep water masses

Formation and movement of the deep water masses at the North Atlantic Ocean,
creates sinking water masses that fill the basin and flows very slowly into the
deep abyssal plains of the Atlantic. This high latitude cooling and the low latitude
heating drives the movement of the deep water in a polar southward flow. The
deep water flows through the Antarctic Ocean Basin around South Africa where it
is split into two routes: one into the Indian Ocean and one past Australia into the
Pacific.

At the Indian Ocean, some of the cold and salty water from the Atlantic drawn
by the flow of warmer and fresher upper ocean water from the tropical Pacific
causes a vertical exchange of dense, sinking water with lighter water above. It is
known as overturning. In the Pacific Ocean, the rest of the cold and salty water
from the Atlantic undergoes haline forcing, and becomes warmer and fresher
more quickly.

The out-flowing undersea of cold and salty water makes the sea level of the
Atlantic slightly lower than the Pacific and salinity or halinity of water at the
Atlantic higher than the Pacific. This generates a large but slow flow of warmer
and fresher upper ocean water from the tropical Pacific to the Indian Ocean
through the Indonesian Archipelago to replace the cold and salty Antarctic
Bottom Water. This is also known as 'haline forcing' (net high latitude freshwater

gain and low latitude evaporation). This warmer, fresher water from the Pacific
flows up through the South Atlantic to Greenland, where it cools off and
undergoes evaporative cooling and sinks to the ocean floor, providing a
continuous thermohaline circulation.[8]

Hence, a recent and popular name for the thermohaline circulation, emphasizing
the vertical nature and pole-to-pole character of this kind of ocean circulation, is
the meridional overturning circulation.

Quantitative estimation
The deep water masses that participate in the MOC have chemical, temperature
and isotopic ratio signatures and can be traced, their flow rate calculated, and
their age determined. These include 231Pa / 230Th ratios.

Effects on global climate

Thermohaline circulation has a major influence on Earth's climate and its
implications leading to climate change. This circulation plays a role in supplying
the polar regions to warmer temperatures. This circulation hence influence the
formation of sea ice near the poles, where the resulting changes in the climate
system, such as albedo and solar heating at high latitudes. The trip current in
much of the interaction with the atmosphere, have contributed to slowing down
time between climatic influences and reactions to changes in the earth itself.
CO2 is hot, will be carried to the oceans through this circulation and buried in the
seabed for centuries, which is likely to address global climate change.

The process of thermohaline currents

The process of thermohaline currents initiated by the more intensive solar
radiation at the equator which resulted in sea water temperature at the equator
is higher than the sea water in the polar regions. Due to the temperature
difference, the density (density) of sea water at the equator becomes tenuous,
so that the surface of the sea water at the equator experience the raising of the
original surface is higher than the surface of the polar sea water. Due to the
nature of water is always moving from areas of high to low areas, the equatorial
ocean water mass moves into the polar regions in the form of surface currents.
Surface currents coming from the equator offset by the basic flow that moves
from the poles to the equator. Movement of the base flow caused by the pressure
of sea water masses equator.

Movement thermohaline (thermohaline Circulation)

Density changes arise because of changes in temperature and salinity between
the two water masses of high density mass of water will sink and spread under

the surface of the water as the flow and circulation called thermohaline currents.
The increase in sea surface temperature caused by radiation from the sky and
the sun, the heat conduction from the atmosphere, and the condensation of
vapor density air.Perbedaan causing the mass flow of water from the deep sea in
the south polar region and the north pole toward the tropics.
Ocean in the equatorial region absorbs more heat than the polar regions,
resulting in the transfer of heat from the equator to the poles through the
process of convection and water movement.

Characteristics thermohaline circulation:

Here are the characteristics of the thermohaline circulation:
- Thermohaline circulation is generally a process that occurs in the deep sea
- Caused by variations in the density of water formed at the boundary between
the air with water, and is closely related to Wind-driven circulation
- Difficult observed directly given the very slow speed, but can be inferred
through observations of salinity, temperature, and dissolved O2 levels
- Circulation is the process of convection, where the cold water and a large
density is formed in polar regions (North and South), sinks, and flows slowly
toward the equator
- In the North Atlantic, formed the North Atlantic Deep Water, whereas in the
Antarctic region formed Antarctic Bottom Water and Antarctic Intermediate Water
- Thermohaline circulation is also influenced by the topography of the ocean
floor.