Earth’s water cycle is driven in large part by the ocean.
Since oceans hold 97% of Earth’s water, they are the largest body of water in the global water cycle. Water enters the atmosphere through ocean evaporation, where it eventually falls back onto land and the ocean. The biosphere is significantly affected by the oceans. It is believed that approximately 90% of the biosphere on Earth is covered by the ocean as a whole.
Ocean temperatures influence climate and wind patterns that affect life on land. Oceanic evaporation, a phase of the water cycle, is the source of the majority of rainfall (about 90%),[60] resulting in a global cloud cover of 67% and a consistent cloud cover of 72%. Over the oceans, one of the most dramatic forms of weather occurs: tropical cyclones, which can also be referred to as typhoons or hurricanes, depending on where the system originates.
As the primary component of Earth’s hydrosphere, the world’s ocean is essential to life on Earth, a component of the carbon cycle and the water cycle, and a major heat reservoir that influences weather patterns and climate.
The partial and alternate rising and falling of the ocean surface is what are referred to as undulations or wind waves, which are motions of the ocean surface. Swell is the term used in sailing, surfing, and navigation to describe the series of mechanical waves that travel along the water-air interface. These movements significantly influence ships on the outer layer of the sea and the prosperity of individuals on those boats who could experience the ill effects of ocean infection.
Waves that are perpendicular to the wind’s direction are created when wind blows over the surface of a body of water. A pond’s ripples are caused by the air-water friction caused by a gentle breeze. As the moving air pushes against the raised ridges of water, a powerful blow over the ocean creates larger waves. When the speed of the waves nearly matches the speed of the wind, they reach their maximum height. Long, organized masses of water known as swell roll across the ocean in open water when the wind blows continuously, as it did in the Southern Hemisphere during the Roaring Forties.
