It is also possible to have a East-West current near the south pole like in this map: File:Corrientes-oceanicas.gif - Wikimedia Commons
The Antarctic Coastal Current
Hey groovey. Good to see you braving the stuff you aren't confident about. You shouldn't be worried with the result, it's very good.
I'd say 90% seems to be the right place. Here's the 10% where I don't see it like you do:
- you forgot to close two loops
One is easier to spot, the sea southeast of Arlia (west of the word Indris, a warm current coming down along those islands forces a cold current on the other side).
The other one stretches around the end of the map. I think you need a cold current west of the word Orter - it's too much water to squeeze in that passage, so a lot of it will just flow northwards along the island arc and join the westerly current southeast of Enenlea
- I don't think the north polar current would be so close to the continental margins - in fact, I think it would be further north and that forces "return" currents (west->east) on the continental margins
As for the smaller sea basins, treat them just as big oceans. Close to the equator, and to the 60ş/70ş latitude, there's a tendency to flow westward, in between, around 40ş/45ş, a tendency to flow easterly. Other than this is just closing the loops.
Speaking of oceanic currents, I've always loved that NASA video :
You can see the main big currents and the incredible number of smaller ones. I guess there are a lot of circling minor currents in your "?" zones.
Oh now Groovey will want to draw them all
Seriously, someone did something like that not too long ago.
Found it: http://www.cartographersguild.com/re...tml#post224591
Which reminds me of another link that was posted on these forums of a wind map, but it also happens to include ocean currents: earth :: an animated map of global wind, weather, and ocean conditions
Hello!
Well, sorry Pixie, I'm still not sure of how to solve the closed basins, since they only get crossed by one of the black current lines, so I can't close the circuit.
The same with the cold current east of Arlia, I'm not sure how to connect it with the black eastern 45ş line, since the warm current awkwardly closes the path to the black line, and there's the warm and cold current from the Indris sea also very close, so the whole area is a bit confusing for me.
I'm not sure how those circle currents work, or if the warm, cold or what. I had seen that video, if I'm not mixing it up with another, the animation was done by Pixar.
I'd appreciate any help.
EDIT 16/08/14: sorry for the lack of updates, I've been distracted with stomach pains and fixing basic points of the conlang I'll use to add names to the map. Plus I'm not sure how to fix the currents maps, so I have to find a way to.
Last edited by groovey; 08-16-2014 at 05:48 AM.
Hello!
Well, my solution to the area east of Arlia was to modify the ocean shelve of the southern islands to make an opening and hopefully solving the routing issues, but since I'm not really sure how currents behave out of Pixie's tutorial, perhaps it's just a silly solution. Looking at Earth's currents maps doesn't really help me since each map represents things slightly differently and don't really explain the reasoning behind it because I guess they suppose one already knows.
So anyway, what are the major flaws in my currents map right now? Any critical fix needed?
Please note I still haven't fixed the name labels to abide them to my conlang's fixes.
Atmospheric Outline
Without pretending by any means that my currents don't need fixes, I started to have a look at the next step of Pixie's tutorial and came up to this. How bad is it? What corrections does it need? And what happens to Low Pressures in the July map? Honestly, this is as far as I can get on this on my own. Warning: the map gets uglier with each layer of info I add, honestly, be careful if you are aesthetics sensitive.
JANUARY-----------------------------------------JULY
Ugh, my Equator is so bloody crammed...
Last edited by groovey; 08-28-2014 at 07:23 AM.
I think your oceanic currents look alright.
About the Atmospheric Outline:
In January, the large landmasses should be high pressure and become low pressure in the hot summer. And both the ITCZ and Polar front are low pressure area.
The L should probably be closer to the equator or the Polar front but not really in the middle of them. Except for the western continent, this is a high pressure area since it's colder.
The south is OK, it's low pressure but not terribly low when you step outside of the ITCZ.
In July, the ITCZ should bend more than that. Bend toward the hot continental masses. It can bend up to the 30th parallel. It's possible to have the Polar front and ITCZ to meet or almost.That's what is happening is Asia. It create a large low pressure area. It covers the Arabian peninsula, the Indian sub-continent, South-east Asia and much of China.
The south could have a high pressure zone over the largest of the continents, but not terribly high.
You can also look at this to help you: http://montessorimuddle.org/wp-conte...rc-490x367.png
Thanks a lot for the input Azelor, but...
I'm afraid I don't understand how the whole thing works really, to apply it to a fictional planet. So I'm not sure I should go on with all the climate stuff. I'll try to do some research when my head is clearer and if I still can't figure it out.. well, I might have to make a though decision.
Man I'm so tempted to pay someone to finish this stuff for me, in the commissions section, but damn, I don't think I could even afford the price.
I'm so intrigued now about what the final climate outline of my world would be and how it would affect the settings for the novel, that it's hard for me to just quit it and do terrain and politics. We'll see.