Publication Date:
2022-01-31
Description:
Properties of seawater in the ocean are not uniformly distributed. Characteristics in different regions and depths are significantly different. Understanding of the distribution and variation of seawater plays an important role in investigating the thermohaline circulation of the world ocean or predicting climate changes. A body of seawater that originates in a particular area and shares a common formation history always has similar properties and such a water body is defined as a water mass. Source water type defines the properties of the original water mass in the formation area. The properties of water masses do not stay constant but change along the flow path due to biogeochemical changes and also due to the mixing with surrounding water masses so that the OMP method is required to investigate the distribution of water masses. The OMP method is to calculate the best components and fractions of more water masses by analyzing water properties (potential temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate nitrate and silicate in this study) and solving the equations of linear mixing without assumptions. With the applications of transient tracers (such as: CFC-12 and SF6), water masses can be labeled and their mean ages (consuming time during the pathway from formation area) are calculated. Combining the distributions and mean ages, the transport time and velocities of water masses can be estimated.
Type:
Thesis
,
NonPeerReviewed
Format:
text
