Sverdrup

The sverdrup, named in honour of the pioneering oceanographer Harald Sverdrup, is a unit of measure of volume transport. It is used almost exclusively in oceanography, to measure the transport of ocean currents. Its symbol is Sv. Note that the sverdrup is not an SI unit, and that its symbol conflicts with the sievert's symbol. It is equivalent to 106 cubic metres per second (0.001 km3/s, or about 264 million U.S. gallons per second). The entire global input of fresh water from rivers to the ocean is equal to about 1 sverdrup.