World Ocean that covers and encircles most of Earth. If viewed from the southern pole of Earth, the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans can be seen as lobes extending northward from the Southern Ocean. Farther north, the Atlantic opens into the Arctic Ocean, which is connected to the Pacific by the Bering Strait, forming a continuous expanse of water. Plate tectonics, post-glacial rebound, and sea level rise continually change the coastline and structure of the world ocean. World Ocean The World Ocean or Global Ocean (colloquially the sea or the ocean) is the interconnected system of Earth's oceanic waters, and comprises the
Ocean surface topography Ocean surface topography Ocean surface topography or sea surface topography, also called dynamic topography, are highs and lows on the ocean surface, similar to the hills and valleys of Earth's land surface depicted on a topographic map. These variations are expressed in terms of sea surface height (SSH) relative to the Earth's geoid. The main purpose of measuring ocean surface topography is to understand the large-scale circulation of the ocean. Unaveraged or instantaneous sea surface height (SSH) is most obviously affected by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the Earth. Over longer timescales, SSH is