Sverdrup

For other uses, seeSverdrup (disambiguation).

Inoceanography,thesverdrup(symbol:Sv) is a non-SImetric unitofvolumetric flow rate,with1 Svequal to 1 million cubic metres per second (264,172,052 US gal/s).It is equivalent to the SI derived unit cubichectometerper second (symbol: hm³/s or hm³⋅s⁻¹): 1 Sv is equal to 1 hm³/s. It is used almost exclusively inoceanographyto measure the volumetric rate of transport ofocean currents.It is named afterHarald Sverdrup.

Sverdrup
General information
Unit of	Volumetric flow rate
Symbol	Sv
Conversions
1 Svin...	... is equal to...
m3/s	1 million
US gallons/s	264 million
cu ft/s	35 million

One sverdrup is about five times what is carried by the world's largest river, the Amazon. In the context ofocean currents,a volume of one million cubic meters may be imagined as a "slice" of ocean with dimensions1km×1 km×1 m(width × length × thickness). At this scale, these units can be more easily compared in terms of width of the current (several km), depth (hundreds of meters), and current speed (asmeters per second). Thus, a hypothetical current50 kmwide, 500 m (0.5 km) deep, and moving at 2 m/s would be transporting50 Svof water.

The sverdrup is distinct from the SIsievertunit or the non-SIsvedbergunit. All three use the same symbol, but they are not related.

History

The sverdrup is named in honor of the Norwegian oceanographer, meteorologist and polar explorerHarald Ulrik Sverdrup(1888–1957), who wrote the 1942 volumeThe Oceans, Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biologytogether with Martin W. Johnson and Richard H. Fleming.

In the 1950s and early 1960s both Soviet and North American scientists contemplated the damming of theBering Strait,thus enabling temperate Atlantic water to heat up the coldArctic Seaand, the theory went, making Siberia and northern Canada more habitable. As part of the North American team, Canadian oceanographer Maxwell Dunbar found it "very cumbersome" to repeatedly reference millions of cubic meters per second. He casually suggested that as a new unit of water flow, "the inflow through Bering Strait is one sverdrup". At the Arctic Basin Symposium in October 1962, the unit came into general usage.

Examples

The water transport in theGulf Streamgradually increases from30 Svin theFlorida Currentto a maximum of150 Svsouth of Newfoundland at 55° Wlongitude.

TheAntarctic Circumpolar Current,at approximately125 Sv,is the largest ocean current.

The entire global input offresh waterfrom rivers to the ocean is approximately1.2 Sv.