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Instead, it is the smaller cold-core features known as Frontal Eddies that form around the boundary of the Loop Current and Loop Current Eddies, which affect biological communities in the Gulf. Loop Current Frontal Eddies are cold-core, counter-clockwise rotating (cyclonic) eddies that form on or near the boundary of the Loop Current.
Although the mechanisms through which eddies shape ecosystems are not yet fully understood, eddies transport nutrients through a combination of horizontal and vertical processes. Stirring and trapping relate to nutrient transport, whereas eddy pumping, eddy-induced Ekman pumping , and eddy impacts on mixed-layer depth variate nutrient. [ 3 ]
These types of mesoscale eddies have been observed in many major ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream, the Agulhas Current, the Kuroshio Current, and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, amongst others. Mesoscale ocean eddies are characterized by currents that flow in a roughly circular motion around the center of the eddy.
The world's largest ocean gyres. Western boundary currents may themselves be divided into sub-tropical or low-latitude western boundary currents. Sub-tropical western boundary currents are warm, deep, narrow, and fast-flowing currents that form on the west side of ocean basins due to western intensification. They carry warm water from the ...
Benguela Current in the South Atlantic Gyre. The Benguela Current / b ɛ ŋ ˈ ɡ ɛ l ə / is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela Front in the north, at around 16°S. The ...
A northern-hemisphere gyre in geostrophic balance. Paler water is less dense than dark water, but more dense than air; the outwards pressure gradient is balanced by the 90 degrees-right-of-flow coriolis force. The structure will eventually dissipate due to friction and mixing of water properties.
Eddies normally travel around one mile per day in these areas; the smoke rings covered five to 10 miles per day and lasted for about six months before splitting up.
The eddies appeared to be caused mostly by topography (particularly islands), wind, and instabilities in the current. These eddies lay mainly between the California Current (flowing toward the equator) and the coastline. [3] The majority of these eddies were cyclonic and had the ability to induce the upwelling of nutrient-rich water.