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Man's Existence Depends on the Sea Climatic and Weather Variations more than two-thirds of the earth’s surface. To us water is an essential sub- stance. Our bodies are composed largely of it. It forms a large part of the things we eat. Water in the form of rain, fog, dew, or vapor is necessary for plant growth and hence for animal life. Without water the earth would be a barren desert. The world’s supply of water is in constant circulation. It might al- most be said that no particle of water is ever still, but always on the move doing something somewhere. Tx waters of the oceans cover Sea Is Always in Motion A large part of the water from rain finds its way into the sea through rivers, which carry every kind of matter in suspension or in so- lution. The water in the sea is al- ways in motion. First, there is the constant oscillation of the waves which beat upon the shore with vio- lence in times of storm and which make the navigation of ships so dif- ficult and dangerous. Second, there is the movement of the tides, espec- ially noticeable on the coasts. In the Bay of Fundy the tides rise ‘and fall as much as 60 feet. Third, there is the constant flow of ocean currents, some of which are of enormous size and form regular riv- ers in the ocean basins. Some of these currents are warm and some cold. The meeting of the warm and the cold current is so clearly marked in some places, such as off the Grand Banks in the North Atlantic that a sharp line may be seen to separate them. A vessel may lie with one end in the cold current and the other end in the warm current. This is an ex- perience not infrequently noted by the vessels of the Coast Guard on the ice patrol in the North Atlantic. Ocean currents play an important part in determining the climate and sad MAAS PUA WPOUITTLAPAIML RULER taint aa PLT TTT iil HATTA HUTTE eb te aby AIAN i OCT OLC FEB apm JuME AUG acT DEC ree APR JUNE AUG OCT OFC FEB APE JUNE AUG OCT DEC FEB APR JUNE as cr DEC FEB APE JUNE AUG OCT DEC FES A Partial Record of Solar Radiation. 12 By George E. Brandt Lieutenant Commander U.S.N., Retired Lieut. Commander Geo. HE. Brandt, OU S2N: Retired. weather over land areas. Water is difficult to heat, but when heated, it is just as difficult to cool. The warm currents have a great effect upon the lands adjoining them. Consider the Gulf stream. It is a warm current which has its origin in the straits of Florida and the Carib- bean region, and flows to the north- ward off the coast of the United States, then curves to the eastward where it ceases to exist as a well de- fined stream, but the waters continue to drift until the shores of Europe are approached, when one branch goes to the northeast and enters the Aretic region and another’ turns NUTT IN I TETAS TTT esa i OP HHOAIWIANNAMSS Variation by Month and Year MARINE REvIEw—May, 1932 south in the direction of the African coast. This warm gulf stream mod- erates the climate of our eastern sea- board and also that of northern Eu- rope. We can appreciate the im- portance of this stream to the peo- ple of northern Europe, when we contrast the relatively mild climate of Norway with the frozen coast of Greenland in the same latitude. The shores of Greenland are washed by the cold current that comes down from the Arctic region. Currents in North Pacific Ocean There are similar hot and cold currents in the North Pacifie ocean. As a result of the warm current, the city of Sitka, Alaska, has the same average temperature as Washington, D. C. though it never gets so warm in summer nor so cold in winter. Sitka is nearly twelve hundred miles farther north than Washington, in nearly the same latitude as the south- ern tip of Greenland. Contrasted with this, we have Vladivostok, where, partly due to the cold current coming down from the frozen north, the winters are extremely cold. 40 degrees below zero is not unusual in Viadivostok. Yet Vladivostok is in the same latitude as Northern Cali- fornia or Marseilles, France, or Con- stantinople, or Rome, Italy. The waters of the ocean are a great reservoir for storing and dis- tributing the heat which comes from solar radiation. During every hour of sunshine, more heat is being added to this reservoir. In turn this heat is given up by the waters of the 6cean, influencing the weather over land and sea. The radiation from the sun, as shown from careful obser- vations made by the astro-physical observatory of the Smithsonian insti- tution, varies considerably from month to month and year to year. This variation is what makes the weather such a complicated study. Since the waters of the ocean act as: an. intermediate reservoir for heat, —the “full effect of a change in solar radiation is not felt until some years after the change takes place. The weather for 1932-33-34 has been de- termined, at least, in a large part, by ‘the heat stored in the waters of the ocean from the solar radiation of 1928-31. The weather which we know on land has its origin largely in the