Physical oceanography is the study of the physical features and functions of the ocean, especially the motions and properties of its waters. Physical oceanography is one of the many sub-domains that make up oceanography. The others are oceanography in the fields of geology, chemistry, and biology. Physical Oceanography is a scientific discipline that studies the physical processes in the ocean, the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere, and the ocean's role in Earth's climate and ecosystems. Some of the major themes in physical oceanography are the dynamics of ocean currents on spatial scales ranging from centimeters to global, the variability of these currents on time-scales from seconds to millennia, ocean wave phenomena, the distribution of heat and salt and other water properties and their transport by currents through the ocean basins, the exchange of momentum, heat, freshwater, and gasses between the ocean and the atmosphere, and the interactions between oceans and rivers, estuaries, sea ice, terrestrial ice, and marginal seas.
