Ocean Current Guidance

[samkatz]

Hi everyone. I've been working on the planet Ni for a while, and now I'm trying to get the ocean currents yet. As one of the intelligent species on Ni lives on the ocean floor of continental shelves, I've opted for extensive-ish shelves, but that has caused me a little confusion in current creation. Here's what I have so far, but I'm looking for a little feedback from people who know this stuff a little better. The latitudes are 0, 30 and 60, and the lighter blue is continental shelf (or inland water).

water_for-currents.png

water-without-currents.png

[samkatz]

Also, any information about how to figure out what's going on with the currents over the continental shelves themselves would be much appreciated.

[Jean-Abdel]

It depends on how shallow are your shelves, but there will probably be normal oceanic currents, maybe a bit slower. Upwelling near the continental slope will have an important role too.

[Azélor]

It looks reasonable. You might want to add polar currents flowing east to west.

[samkatz]

Here it is wit some polar currents, plus some little gyres for fun. Adding color to the arrows soon.
Screen Shot 2018-12-14 at 10.21.04 PM.png

[samkatz]

color currents.png
Quick and dirty version with color. Am I right in assuming that when I do the climates, the east and west coasts of the gulf in the southwest continent, below the equator, will have "switched" coastal climates (with Mediterranean/desert on the west of the gulf, and Virginia-Georgia type whether on the east)? Or is that not how it works?

[AEB]

One question, does your world have any massive rivers like the Mississippi or Amazon basins? Great rivers can create ocean spanning currents that have a major impact on climate.

An example of this is the climate of the Atlantic coasts of North America vs. Europe. The Gulf Stream means that the coast of Europe is warmer at the same latitude than North America.

[samkatz]

Oooh! I didn't know that. Do any of the ones pictured here look massive enough? These are the most "major" ones I've got. By which I mean the rivers shown in this image are those with the deepest valleys on my elevation map.

[Charerg]

I should probably pop in and mention that oceanic currents like the Gulf Stream have nothing to do with rivers (sry AEB). The driving force behind the formation of oceanic currents is the rotation of the planet (and the atmospheric winds caused by that rotation).

[AEB]

My info maybe out of date but I thought that the Atlantic currents were driven in part as the result of salinity differences, with the influx of fresh water making a fast surface current flowing across a deeper, more saline water from ice formation that flows back the other way as a far deeper current?

This is why the potential melting of the Greenland ice shelf has the potential to divert or stall the Gulf Stream with major consequences for the European climate.