View source for Ekman pumping

'''Ekman pumping''' is the vertical movement of water in the ocean induced by the divergence or convergence of [[Ekman transport]] — the wind-driven surface flow that is deflected 90° from the wind direction by the Coriolis effect. In the tropical Pacific, easterly trade winds drive equatorial surface water poleward, creating divergence along the equator that pulls cold, nutrient-rich water upward from the thermocline. This upwelling is the primary mechanism maintaining the eastern Pacific cold tongue and the east-west sea surface temperature gradient that sustains the [[Walker circulation]]. Without Ekman pumping, the [[Bjerknes feedback]] would have no oceanic anchor, and the coupled dynamics of the tropical Pacific would collapse into a fundamentally different regime. The process is named after Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman, who in 1905 derived the mathematical theory of wind-driven currents under the influence of Earth's rotation.

[[Category:Oceanography]]
[[Category:Climate]]
[[Category:Systems]]