Translation glossary: Oceanography

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the most important current in the Southern Ocean, and the only current that flows completely around the globe. The ACC, as it encircles the Antarctic continent, flows eastward through the southern portions of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Edmond Halley, the British astronomer, discovered the ACC while surveying the region during the 1699-1700 HMS Paramore expedition. Later, the famous mariners James Cook in 1772-1775, Thaddeus Bellingshausen (Estonia) in 1819-1821, and James Clark Ross in 1839-1843 described the Atlantic Circumpolar Current in their journals. Cook was the first person to use the term, Southern Ocean, to describe this area. Other notable expeditions were made by Sir Drake, who reached the tip of South America in 1578, Abel Tasman, who sailed south from Australia into the Southern Ocean in 1642, James Weddell in 1823, and by the HMS Challenger in 1873-74 (Deacon, 1984). 
The ACC is arguably the "mightiest current in the oceans" (Pickard and Emery, 1990). Despite its relatively slow eastward flow of less than 20 cm s-1 in regions between the fronts, the ACC transports more water than any other current (Klinck and Nowlin, 2001). The ACC extends from the sea surface to depths of 2000-4000 m and can be as wide as 2000 km. This tremendous cross-sectional area allows for the current's large volume transport. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current's eastward flow is driven by strong westerly winds. The average wind speed between 40°S and 60°S is 15 to 24 knots with strongest winds typically bewteen 45°S and 55°S. Historically, the ACC has been referred to as the 'West Wind Drift' because the prevailing westerly wind and current are both eastward.

http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/southern/antarctic-cp.html

marée de morte-eau, marée de quadrature, mortes eaux

neap tide

French to English

marnage

tidal range

French to English

mer du vent, mer de vent

wind sea

French to English

pollacra

polacre

Catalan to English

rayonnement infrarouge

infrared radiation

French to English

Electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength longer than the longest visible wavelength but shorter than those in the microwave and radio ranges. 
www.genesismission.org/glossary.html

Electromagnetic radiation lying in the wavelength interval from 0.7 µ to 1000 µ . Its lower limit is bounded by visible radiation, and its upper limit by microwave radiation. Most of the energy emitted by the Earth and its atmosphere is at infrared wavelength. Infrared radiation is generated almost entirely by large-scale intra-molecular processes. The tri-atomic gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone, absorb infrared radiation and play important roles in the propagation of infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Abbreviated IR; also called "longwave radiation." 
www.globalchange.org/glossall/glossg-i.htm

The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths ranging from longer than visible radiation, starting around 0.7 micrometers, to wavelengths shorter than those in the microwave portion of the spectrum. Satellite instruments typically measure infrared radiation between wavelengths of about 3 micrometers and 20 micrometers. 
www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/irgrp/defs.html

remontée des eaux (froides/profondes)

upwelling of cold/deep water

French to English