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Article: Weather and the Ocean
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- Water:Science and Issues
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Weather and the Ocean
Much of the weather experienced on land has its origins over the oceans. Weather is the state of the atmosphere at any given time and place. Earth's oceans and atmosphere are in constant contact, sharing water, gases, and energy. The conditions of one directly affect the conditions of another. Unfortunately for weather predictors, these complex interactions behave according to chaos theory. That is, the outcome of any equation that attempts to describe them is so sensitive to tiny differences in starting conditions that the results appear to be random, or at least very difficult to predict.
Uneven heating of Earth creates circulation cells in the atmosphere. ...