surface water

…cooled at its surface, the surface water sinks, and convective overturn proceeds as the density of the surface water increases with the decreasing temperature. By the time the surface water reaches 4 °C (39.2 °F), the temperature of maximum density for fresh water, the density-driven convective overturn has reached the…

…structure and currents in the surface layer of the ocean waters in its path. Cooling of the surface layer occurs in the wake of such a storm. Maximum cooling occurs on the right of a hurricane’s path in the Northern Hemisphere. In the wake of Hurricane Hilda’s passage through the…

…C) higher than those of surface waters only 150 miles (240 km) to the northwest, although there is less than a 10° F (6° C) change in surface-water temperatures over a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) distance to the southeast.

hypsometry, allows quantification of the surface area distribution of the oceans and their marginal seas with depth.