This animation shows the path of the global conveyer belt. The blue arrows indicate the path of deep, cold, dense water currents. The red arrows indicate the path of warmer, less dense surface waters. It is estimated that it can take 1,000 years for a “parcel” of water to complete the journey along the global conveyor belt. (quote from noaa.gov)
Understanding ocean currents on a basic level is understanding the effect of solar heat on surface currents along the equator and deep sea currents largely influenced by iced polar caps that drive differences in water’s density.(colder waters where ice forms is saltier, because ice leaves behind the salt) Water density changes by temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline), and thus the process is called thermohaline circulation.
The slight issue? Disappearing ice caps. Though for the most part, surface ocean currents are largely effected by the rotation of the Earth, or the Coriolis Effect and solar heat along the equator.
information and predictions borrowed heavily from data and estimations from the NOAA/National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center
I remembered reading about predicted coast changes from EPA reports in highschool, but trying to revisit the specific data has been a deadend.
Either way, I’m looking at records for floods, and looking at other sources for estimated future coastlines.
From climatecentral.org:
“We have known for a long time that sea level is rising. The link to global warming has been both intuitive and evident. Temperatures rise, and satellites watch glaciers and ice sheets shrink; networks of robotic buoys sample ocean waters as they heat and expand.
We have also known that coastal floods are increasing. The link to sea level rise is clear. A higher starting level means that the same tide, the same storm surge, goes higher than it otherwise would have. Tide gauges dotting our bays and beaches have been recording this shift.
So far as I know, until now, no study has extended the links all the way from burning fossil fuels, to global warming, to sea level rise, to coastal floods that were caused unambiguously by us. But that is what collaborators and I have attempted to do in a new analysis.”
I’m excited either way for figuring out how to utilize worse case scenarios of coastal changes to be part of/augment the design…now I just need to figure that out. There’s a lot to explore. I found a 3d simulation of future google earth to explore best and worst case scenarios.
How can I leverage changing coastlines? The surface sea currents will stay in the general patterns that they currently are in because the earth’s rotation and position relative to the sun (and no significant predicted changes for the sun in at least the next 100 years except for solar storms) is predictable, but changing coasts would definitely throw a wrench in how predictable/where my bottles would end up, if they’re at all accessible…
There have been some cute art pieces using climate change data, but I feel their design consideration lacking. It’s just pretty pictures…how do I keep my design from falling under a similar window?
VISUALS:
The sketching begins…
Despite what you may have heard, reports of the “death of print” have been greatly exaggerated.
Maybe there’ll be more digital books and documents, but the book and paper physical artifacts will still be around. (likely valued even higher, because they’d only be used to print especially important and collectible material. Art books and coffee table centerpieces, etc)
OCEAN SIMULATORS:
I played with the data sets of the last 50 years, and followed the ocean currents up and down the coast of america and asia. I played with the various coeffcients of wind current speed according to object.
