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Cyclonic eddies rotate anticlockwise (clockwise) in the Northern (Southern) hemisphere and have a cold core. Anticyclonic eddies rotate clockwise (anticlockwise) in the Northern (Southern) hemisphere and have a warm core. The temperature and salinity difference between the eddy core and the surrounding waters is the key element driving vertical ...
View of the currents surrounding the gyre. The North Atlantic Gyre of the Atlantic Ocean is one of five great oceanic gyres.It is a circular ocean current, with offshoot eddies and sub-gyres, across the North Atlantic from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (calms or doldrums) to the part south of Iceland, and from the east coasts of North America to the west coasts of Europe and Africa.
This current as part of a baroclinically unstable system meanders and creates eddies (in much the same way as a meandering river forms an oxbow lake). 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 ...
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.
In oceanography, a gyre (/ ˈ dʒ aɪ ər /) is any large system of ocean surface currents moving in a circular fashion driven by wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determine the circulatory patterns from the wind stress curl ().
The Loop Current is an extension of the western boundary current of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. [1] Serving as the dominant circulation feature in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Loop Currents transports between 23 and 27 sverdrups [ 2 ] and reaches maximum flow speeds of from 1.5 to 1.8 meters/second.
Low-latitude western boundary currents (LLWBC) are western boundary currents located between the subtropical gyres, within 20° of the equator. They are important for closing the tropical circulation driven by the equatorial zonal flow, [ 1 ] and facilitate inter-ocean transport between the subtropical gyres.
Heat flux in the East Australian Current from the equator toward the South Pole. The EAC is a surface current driven by winds over the South Pacific. These winds control how the current behaves at different times of year. The EAC starts on the west edge of the South Pacific Gyre where it collects warm, nutrient-poor water. As it skirts along ...