Rip Currents
19-02-2024
1 min read
Overview:
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have embarked on a project to continuously monitor and issue operational forecast alerts of rip currents.
About Rip Currents
- These are a strong flow of water running from a beach back to the Open Ocean, sea, or lake.
- These are one of the most well-known coastal hazards on beaches around the world.
- Formation
- They are formed by a beach topography.
- They can occur in areas with hard-bottom (rocky) or soft-bottom (sand or silt) beach topography.
- A beaches topography includes the area outside the water, such as dunes or marshes.
- Beach topography also includes the area within the water, like sandbars, piers, and reefs. Rip currents often form around these parts of a beachs topography.
- They can form in a gap between sandbars, piers, or parts of a reef.
- Such underwater obstacles block waves from washing directly back to sea.
- The water from these waves, called feeder waves, runs along the shore until it finds an opening around the obstacle.
- Contrary to popular belief, a rip cannot pull a person down and hold him/her under the water.
- It simply carries floating objects, including people, out to just beyond the zone of the breaking waves.
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Q1) What is Ocean current?
These are the continuous, predictable, directional movement of seawater driven by gravity, wind (Coriolis Effect), and water density. Ocean water moves in two directions: horizontally and vertically. Horizontal movements are referred to as currents, while vertical changes are called upwellings or downwellings.
Source: INCOIS, ISRO to study rip currents for safer beaches