This activity uses real data, including sea surface temperature (SST) and wind speed, from satellites to investigate the link between ocean temperatures and currents and draws a connection of ocean heat transport to global climate.
Excellent resources and databases (NOAA, NASA, NCAR ) provided under lesson links but most of them are not integrated into the activity.
Comment from scientist: The connection to winds, conveyor belts, and heat transport is not clear and sometimes wrong. For example, in the subpolar gyres, e.g., N. Pacific, the western boundary current is the Oyashio, which flows cold water equator-ward on the western side of the ocean. The warm currents on the west, cold currents on the east is thus an oversimplification. It would be much clearer if the pressures and geotrophic flow were used to explain the gyres. Then the connection to winds could also be made, since the Ekman flow 'piles up the water' in the center of the gyres. If that is too complicated, then just focus on the winds blowing clockwise or counterclockwise, which gives the sense of rotation of each gyre. Also, there is not enough detail given here to understand upwelling. A few words about Ekman flow to the right/left of the wind In the N/S hemisphere are needed; in connection with the gyre forcing discussion, this would be very helpful. The links in the exercise provide this information correctly.