The Volume of Earth’s Ocean
Despite playing a significant role in the global water cycle, ocean volume has not been re-examined in over 25 years. The main uncertainty associated with ocean volume is the mean ocean depth. The earliest studies tended to overestimate ocean depth due to undersampling of seamounts and ocean ridges....
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Oceanography Society
2010-06-01
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| Series: | Oceanography |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_2/23-2_charette.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818790432132300800 |
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| author | Matthew A. Charette Walter H.F. Smith |
| author_facet | Matthew A. Charette Walter H.F. Smith |
| author_sort | Matthew A. Charette |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite playing a significant role in the global water cycle, ocean volume has not been re-examined in over 25 years. The main uncertainty associated with ocean volume is the mean ocean depth. The earliest studies tended to overestimate ocean depth due to undersampling of seamounts and ocean ridges. The advent of the echosounder in the 1920s and subsequent ship-borne technologies rapidly increased aerial coverage of the ocean; hence, over time there has been a gradual decrease in calculated mean ocean depth. Today, however, in situ measurements span only ~ 10% of the ocean’s surface area. Here, we use satellite altimetry data to estimate the ocean’s volume, which is lower by a volume equivalent to 500 times the Great Lakes or five times the Gulf of Mexico when compared to the most recent published estimates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T14:55:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d3ab0f05e2454483a4d42292335204f8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1042-8275 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T14:55:22Z |
| publishDate | 2010-06-01 |
| publisher | The Oceanography Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Oceanography |
| spelling | doaj.art-d3ab0f05e2454483a4d42292335204f82022-12-21T21:04:05ZengThe Oceanography SocietyOceanography1042-82752010-06-01232112114The Volume of Earth’s OceanMatthew A. CharetteWalter H.F. SmithDespite playing a significant role in the global water cycle, ocean volume has not been re-examined in over 25 years. The main uncertainty associated with ocean volume is the mean ocean depth. The earliest studies tended to overestimate ocean depth due to undersampling of seamounts and ocean ridges. The advent of the echosounder in the 1920s and subsequent ship-borne technologies rapidly increased aerial coverage of the ocean; hence, over time there has been a gradual decrease in calculated mean ocean depth. Today, however, in situ measurements span only ~ 10% of the ocean’s surface area. Here, we use satellite altimetry data to estimate the ocean’s volume, which is lower by a volume equivalent to 500 times the Great Lakes or five times the Gulf of Mexico when compared to the most recent published estimates.http://tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_2/23-2_charette.pdfocean volumesatellite altimetry |
| spellingShingle | Matthew A. Charette Walter H.F. Smith The Volume of Earth’s Ocean Oceanography ocean volume satellite altimetry |
| title | The Volume of Earth’s Ocean |
| title_full | The Volume of Earth’s Ocean |
| title_fullStr | The Volume of Earth’s Ocean |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Volume of Earth’s Ocean |
| title_short | The Volume of Earth’s Ocean |
| title_sort | volume of earth s ocean |
| topic | ocean volume satellite altimetry |
| url | http://tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_2/23-2_charette.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT matthewacharette thevolumeofearthsocean AT walterhfsmith thevolumeofearthsocean AT matthewacharette volumeofearthsocean AT walterhfsmith volumeofearthsocean |