No prerequisites, except an interest in how the ocean works

The aim of this course is to describe how the ocean works under the solar radiation and the continuous exchanges with the atmosphere indissociably linked with it.

Generalities on the ocean, the peculiar characteristics of water and sea-water; The different exchanges with the atmosphere; The concept of water mass and the hydrological analysis; The general structure of the ocean ; The principal origins of the ocean circulation, the geostrophic balance, the Ekman balance and the Coriolis force, the thermohaline circulation ; The role of wind, the general surface circulation, convergence, divergence ; Then, the specific hydrology of each ocean with the origin, formation, movement and mixing of the various water masses encountered, leading to the global thermohaline circulation. At the end, the role of the ocean on the climate system is briefly approached as well as examples of variability.

on the last day of the course