the meandering gulf stream as seen by the geosat altimeter surface transport position and velocity variance from 73 to 46 w the surface geostrophic velocity field for the gulf stream region was analyzed for the position structure and surface transport of the gulf stream for 2 5 years of the geosat altimeter exact repeat mission synthetic data using a gaussian velocity profile were generated and fit to the sea surface residual heights to create a synthetic mean sea surface height field and profiles of absolute geostrophic currents most of cross track velocity variance was due to the meandering of the gulf stream rather than to rings or complicated velocity profiles which suggested that the simple model parameters are an efficient description of the gulf stream fluctuations an analysis of the model parameters and the actual geostrophic velocity profiles revealed two different flow regimes for the gulf stream connected by a narrow transition region coincident with the new england seamount chain the upstream region was characterized by relatively straight gulf stream paths long eulerian time scales and eastward propagating meanders the downstream region had more large meanders no consistent propagation direction and shorter eulerian time scales a 25 reduction in surface transport occurred in the transition region with a corresponding reduction in current speed and no change in gulf stream width a significant anomaly in surface transport near 69 w suggested the existence of small scale recirculation gyres there the highest variance empirical orthogonal functions of position and surface transport were significantly correlated with larger surface transports leading more northerly positions by a month

eddies in the labrador sea as observed by profiling rafos floats and remote sensing abstract data from profiling rafos floats topex poseidon altimetry and the alongtrack scanning radiometer atsr aboard ers 1 have been used to describe the spatial and seasonal patterns of eddy variability in the labrador sea peaks in sea surface height ssh variability appear in two regions off the west greenland shelf near 61 5 n 52 w where the 3000 m isobath separates from the shelf and in the center of the basin at 58 n 52 w both locations show seasonal ranges in ssh variability of up to 40 mm with the greenland site having largest variability in january march leading the central site by 50 days a sea surface temperature image from the atsr at the greenland site shows numerous eddies both cyclonic and anticyclonic being formed by injection of west greenland current water into the labrador sea interior data from profiling rafos floats launched in 1997 as part of the labrador sea deep convection experiment are used to describe three of the west greenland current eddies in detail one of

tracking the prime eddy using satellite altimetry abstract the prime cruise to the north atlantic during june july 1996 surveyed and sampled an extremely vigorous and deep reaching eddy with a significant barotropic component although it exhibited anticyclonic flow and featured a warm core at depth it had been capped at some point during its lifetime so appeared as a cold feature in the upper 500 m satellite derived sea surface temperatures sst showed it to have moved little during the few weeks prior to the cruise in this paper we discuss the origin of the prime eddy including where and when it is likely to have formed consistently large amounts of cloud cover restrict the use of sst imagery to track such features altimetry provides a better method to trace this eddy back in time and space since microwave radiation is not significantly affected by cloud cover sea level anomaly sla data from the topex poseidon and european remote sensing ers satellites were used results show that the eddy remained almost stationary in the iceland basin since first being detected in late 1995 and that it almost certainly formed locally probably as a result of an instability in the current flow around the northwest of the hatton bank comparisons between satellite slas and hydrographic estimates of sea surface elevation confirm that the eddy had a substantial barotropic flow both the altimeter data and the sea surface height derived from the acoustic doppler current profiler agree that the prime eddy had a sea surface elevation of about 20 cm and that its diameter was about 120 km

shifting surface currents in the northern north atlantic ocean 1 analysis of surface drifter tracks in the north atlantic ocean from the time period 1990 to 2007 provides evidence that warm subtropical waters have recently increased their penetration toward the nordic seas prior to 2000 the warm water branches of the north atlantic current fed by the gulf stream turned southeastward in the eastern north atlantic since 2001 these paths have shifted toward the rockall trough through which the most saline north atlantic waters pass to the nordic seas these surface drifters are able to overcome the ekman drift which would force them southward under the westerly winds dominating the subpolar atlantic yet the changes in path cannot be accounted for by changes in ekman drift eddy kinetic energy from satellite altimetry shows increased energy along the shifted drifter pathways across the mid atlantic ridge since 2001 these near surface changes have occurred during continual weakening of the north atlantic subpolar gyre as seen by altimetry they are also consistent with the observed increase in temperature and salinity of the waters flowing northward into the nordic seas these findings suggest the changes in the vertical structure of the northern north atlantic ocean its dynamics and exchanges with the higher latitudes wind stress and its curl changes are discussed as a possible forcing of the changes in the pathways of the subtropical waters

boundary current eddies and their role in the restratification of the labrador sea an idealized model is used to study the restratification of the labrador sea after deep convection with emphasis on the role of boundary current eddies shed near the west coast of greenland the boundary current eddies carry warm buoyant irminger current water into the labrador sea interior for a realistic end of winter state it is shown that these irminger current eddies are efficient in restratifying the convected water mass in the interior of the labrador sea in addition it is demonstrated that irminger current eddies can balance a significant portion of the atmospheric heat loss and thus play an important role for the watermass transformation in the labrador sea

sea level variabilities in the gulf stream between cape hatteras and 50 w a geosat study sea level residuals relative to a 2 year mean sea level in the gulf stream downstream of cape hatteras between 80 w and 50 w longitude are studied using geosat altimetry between november 1986 and december 1988 spectral slopes computed at four nominal locations along the gulf stream 72 w 65 w 60 w and 55 w range between 1 5 and 0 9 significantly less steep than the 2 5 spectral slope found at bermuda because of increased short wavelength energy the spectra tend to become more white going eastward but this trend is not statistically significant energy at the annual cycle decreases eastward from around 40 of the total variance at 72 w to 20 of the total variance at 55 w maximum residual geostrophic sea surface velocities associated with the annual cycle were of the order of 70 cm s comparison between the gulf stream path from sea level residual maps and the north wall edge observed from noaa infrared ir imagery shows an rms difference of 49 km between 75 w and 60 w longitude but not all sea level maps show a clearly defined gulf stream using the ir estimates for gulf stream position sea level residuals were modeled as the meandering of a sea level front shaped as 0 5 m tanh x x0 50 km sin with the angle between the geosat track and the gulf stream edge and x0 is based on the observed ir north wall positions this showed that the annual signal in terms of the location and phase of its maxima is dominated by the meandering of the gulf stream

variations of global mesoscale eddy energy observed from geosat the global distribution of eddy kinetic energy has been synoptically observed from analysis of the geosat exact repeat mission erm altimeter data collected for a 2 year period from november 1986 through november 1988 using a technique developed by sandwell and zhang 1989 altimeter data from forty four 17 day repeat cycles 2 years were processed into sea surface slopes along the satellite ground track averaged and filtered to produce a mean sea surface slope profile having an estimated accuracy of 0 2 rad 2 cm sea level change over 100 km distance a series of global eddy kinetic energy maps each averaged over 3 months and their mean were then generated the maximum mean eddy kinetic energy per unit mass exceeds 2000 cm2 s2 for most of the western boundary currents however it only reaches approximately 500 cm2 s2 for the antarctic circumpolar current acc more than 65 of the world ocean has relatively low variability with an eddy kinetic energy of less than 300 cm2 s2 results obtained from this study are in general agreement with other geosat ocean variability studies e g zlotnicki et al 1989 however significantly higher variability is found when compared with either seasat or ship drift data significant seasonal variations were found in the gulf stream and kuroshio currents the acc system exhibits no apparent seasonal variation

long term observations of north atlantic current transport at the gateway between western and eastern atlantic in the western north atlantic warm and saline water is brought by the north atlantic current nac from the subtropics into the subpolar gyre four inverted echo sounders with high precision pressure sensors pies were moored between 47 40 n and 52 30 n to study the main pathways of the nac from the western into the eastern basin the array configuration that forms three segments northern central and southern allows partitioning of the nac and some assessment of nac flow paths through the different mid atlantic ridge fracture zones we exploit the correlation between the nac transport measured between 2006 and 2010 and the geostrophic velocity from altimeter data to extend the time series of nac transports to the period from 1992 to 2013 the mean nac transport over the entire 21 years is 27 5 sv consisting of 60 warm water of subtropical origin and 40 subpolar water we did not find a significant trend in the total transport time series but individual segments had opposing trends leading to a more focused nac in the central subsection and decreasing transports in the southern and northern segments the spectral analysis exhibits several significant peaks the two most prominent are around 120 days identified as the time scale of meanders and eddies and at 4 9 years most likely related to the nao transport composites for the years of highest and lowest nao indices showed a significantly higher transport 2 9 sv during strong nao years mainly in the southern segment

on the seasonal eddy variability in the kuroshio extension abstractusing a recently developed tool multiscale window transform mwt and the mwt based canonical energy transfer theory this study investigates the seasonal eddy variability in the kuroshio

sources of eddy kinetic energy in the labrador sea experiments with a suite of north atlantic general circulation models are used to examine the sources of eddy kinetic energy eke in the labrador sea a high resolution model version 112 quantitatively reproduces the observed signature a particular feature of the eke in the labrador sea is its pronounced seasonal cycle with a maximum intensity in early winter as already found in earlier studies based on altimeter data in contrast to a previously advanced hypothesis the seasonally varying eddy field is not related to a forcing by high frequency wind variations but can be explained by a seasonally modulated instability of the west greenland current wgc the main source of eke in the labrador sea is an energy transfer due to reynolds interaction work barotropic instability in a confined region near cape desolation where the wgc adjusts to a change in the topographic slope geostrophic contours tend to converge upstream of cape desolation such that the topographically guided wgc narrows as well and becomes barotropically unstable the eddies spawned from the wgc instability area dominating the eke in the interior labrador sea are predominantly anticyclonic with warm and saline cores in the upper kilometer of the water column while the few cyclones originating as well from the instability area show a more depth independent structure companion experiments with a model exhibit the strength of the wgc influenced by either changes in the wind stress or heat flux forcing as a leading factor determining seasonal to interannual changes of eke in the labrador sea

spatial scales of mesoscale variability in the north atlantic as deduced from geosat data two years of geosat data were used to systematically investigate the mesoscale variability and spatial scales of the north atlantic we first calculated sea surface height variability and eddy kinetic energy these compare well with the eddy kinetic energy obtained with surface drifters then the spatial scales of mesoscale variability were characterized in 10 latitude 10 longitude areas by their wave number spectra and autocorrelation functions comparison with existing in situ data shows good agreement and it is believed that the total error budget is globally below that of the oceanic signal the wave number spectra show significant differences as a function of latitude and longitude and these can be related to different types of forcing instability of a mean current or fluctuating wind scales typically decrease from west to east and south to north simple proportionality with respect to the first internal rossby radii does not apply everywhere

on the movements of the north atlantic subpolar front in the preinstrumental past abstractthree sediment records of sea surface temperature sst are analyzed that originate from distant locations in the north atlantic have centennial to multicentennial resolution are based on the same reconstruction method and chronological assumptions and span the past 15 000 yr using recursive least squares techniques an estimate of the time dependent north atlantic sst field over the last 15 kyr is sought that is consistent with both the sst records and a surface ocean circulation model given estimates of their respective error co variances under the authors assumptions about data and model errors it is found that the 10 c mixed layer isotherm which approximately traces the modern subpolar front would have moved by 15 of latitude southward northward in the eastern north atlantic at the onset termination of the younger dryas cold interval yd a result significant at the level of two standard deviations in the isotherm position in contrast meridional movements of the isotherm in

gulf stream surface transport and statistics at 69 w from the geosat altimeter geosat altimeter height measurements for the gulf stream for three subtracks from the exact repeat mission were processed to remove the geoid and mean gulf stream height a gaussian model for the gulf stream velocity profile was used to predict the form of the residual height profiles seen by geosat and the mean height profile using estimates of the width and position derived from the height residuals estimates of the maximum surface velocity and the surface transport were obtained by a least squares fit of the synthetic height profiles to the data location statistics from the geosat data were in good agreement with values obtained from infrared images of the gulf stream maximum surface velocities were typically between 1 2 and 2 0 m s 1 the time series showed that surface transport is correlated primarily with the magnitude of the surface velocities although an anomalously large increase in surface transport in the winter of 1987 1988 was caused by an increase in the width of the gulf stream an analysis of the average annual signal in transport showed maximum values in the late fall and minimum transport in the late spring maximum minimum surface transport generally occurred when the gulf stream was north south of its mean position

seasonal variations of the large scale geostrophic flow field and eddy kinetic energy inferred from the topex poseidon and jason 1 tandem mission data 1 geostrophic surface velocity anomalies are used to analyze the annual variations of the large scale geostrophic currents and of the eddy kinetic energy eke field of the ocean circulation the underlying geostrophic currents were estimated from the jason 1 topex poseidon jtp tandem altimetric sea surface height data using the parallel track approach with a 10 km along track resolution however because of the given separation of the tracks of the two satellites only large mesoscale eddies are resolved by the tandem measurements the analysis covers the entire 3 year period of the tandem mission 109 repeat cycles from september 2002 to september 2005 the analysis of the seasonal flow changes reveals annual changes of all major current systems but especially of the zonal flow field in low latitudes leading to zonal jets on the annual cycle in the southern pacific atlantic and indian oceans in middle and high latitudes indications of a seasonally modulated strength of the sverdrup circulation emerge from the analysis the eke field also shows changes in its amplitude on the annual period in low latitudes those can be rationalized as resulting from seasonally modulated currents in middle and high latitudes changes in the wind driven barotropic circulation loom large which are not represented in other altimetric velocity products results shown suggest that velocity time series of the jtp tandem mission should be continued through similar constellations e g of jason 1 and jason 2

structure and variability of the west greenland current in summer derived from 6 repeat standard sections abstract six historical sections across the west greenland current are examined three sections have been regularly occupied since the late 1950s while the three southern ones have been taken since 1984 significant variability is observed for the freshwater core of the coastal current on the shelf with salinity varying by over 3 units between years there is also significant variability in the shape and offshore position of the main shelf break front leading to large variability in eulerian velocities significant presence of irminger water is seen during the 1960s and the 2000s being found right across the sections in recent years maximum mean transport relative to the 34 8 isohaline of 5 5 3 9 sv relative to 700 db for 1984 2005 is observed at the cape desolation section transports decrease to the north with the majority of the exchange with the interior of the labrador sea occurring between cape desolation and fylla bank inter decadal transport variability is observed at fylla bank while a decline in transports since peaks in the early 1990s is seen at cape farewell and cape desolation freshwater transport is largest at cape desolation with a mean summer transport of 60 2 20 5 msv freshwater transport increases slightly between cape farewell and cape desolation and we suggest it is related to local discharge by glaciers into juliannehaab bight as well as the melting of sea ice we also find that years of high greenland ice cap melt are consistently associated with years of high freshwater transport at cape desolation suggesting a portion of the freshwater transport of the west greenland current may be associated with melt from the greenland ice sheet finally significantly enhanced freshwater transports 33 msv at cape desolation compared to the long term mean are seen in 2008 probably a signature of the record arctic ocean ice melt and export in 2007

satellite altimetry the marine geoid and the oceanic general circulation for technical reasons the general circulation of the ocean has historically been treated as a steady laminar flow field the recent availability of extremely highaccuracy and high precision satellite altimetry has provided a graphic demonstration that the ocean is actually a rapidly time evolving turbulent flow field to render the observations quantitatively useful for oceanographic purposes has required order of magnitude improvements in a number of fields including orbit dynamics gravity field estimation and atmospheric variability with five years of very high quality data now available the nature of oceanic variability on all space and time scales is emerging including new findings about such diverse and important phenomena as mixing coefficients the frequency wavenumber spectrum and turbulent cascades because the surface elevation is both a cause and consequence of motions deep within the water column oceanographers soon will be able to provide general circulation numerical models tested against and then combined with the altimeter data these will be complete three dimensional timeevolving estimates of the ocean circulation permitting greatly improved estimates of oceanic heat carbon and other property fluxes

north atlantic ocean surface currents 1 close to 1800 surface drifters are used to investigate the 15 m circulation of the north atlantic ocean the data are used to describe structures of the average eulerian circulation and of the associated eddy variability the data resolve scales on the order of 50 km which have hitherto not been systematically described in particular near shelf breaks and near the most intense currents the gulf stream the north atlantic current nac and the frontal currents of the subpolar gyre this reveals a complex series of quasi permanent eddies meanders and recirculation patterns gulf stream intensity is portrayed as changing abruptly near 54 w east of which it is identified as two current branches centered near 39 and 41 5 n the northern one connecting more directly with the nac and the southern one with the recirculation gyre and the azores current ac many features of the currents are controlled by topography in particular currents are often intensified near shelf breaks or parallel to ridges in the subpolar gyre however the largest northward branch of the nac in the icelandic basin is located near the deepest bathymetry not near steep bathymetry other currents in particular in the subtropical gyre are less clearly related to topography for instance the ac is featured as a zonal eastward current extending far west of the mid atlantic ridge mar to at least 55 w and possibly 63 w in the interior and away from topographic features the eddy kinetic energy eke is the largest where the mean currents are the largest in the subpolar gyre there are striking differences in eke between southward flowing currents the labrador and east greenland current and the northward flowing currents west greenland current and branches of the nac which have higher eke the areas of weakest variability are located in the southwest part of the subpolar gyre northeast of iceland and in the eastern atlantic south of 45 n the ac eddies and the mesoscales south of the canary islands transect this eastern eddy desert drifter trajectories are used as realizations of lagrangian particles in the vicinity of current cores these illustrate the variety of paths or connections between different current systems and demonstrate cross stream dispersions

observations of the labrador sea eddy field this paper is an observational study of small scale coherent eddies in the labrador sea a region of dense water formation thought to be of considerable importance to the north atlantic overturning circulation numerical studies of deep convection emphasize coherent eddies as a mechanism for the lateral transport of heat yet their small size has hindered observational progress a large part of this paper is therefore devoted to developing new methods for identifying and describing coherent eddies in two observational platforms current meter moorings and satellite altimetry details of the current and water mass structure of individual eddy events as they are swept past by an advecting flow can then be extracted from the mooring data a transition is seen during mid 1997 with long lived boundary current eddies dominating the central labrador sea year round after this time and convectively formed eddies similar to those seen in deep convection modeling studies apparent prior to this time the topex poseidon altimeter covers the labrador sea with a loose net of observations through which coherent eddies can seem to appear and disappear by concentrating on locating and describing anomalous events in individual altimeter tracks a portrait of the spatial and temporal variability of the underlying eddy field can be constructed the altimeter results reveal an annual pulsation of energy and of coherent eddies originating during the late fall at a particular location in the boundary current pinpointing the time and place of the boundary current type eddy formation the interannual variability seen at the mooring is reproduced but the mooring site is found to be within a localized region of greatly enhanced eddy activity notably lacking in both the annual cycle and interannual variability is a clear relationship between the eddies or eddy energy and the intensity of wintertime cooling these eddy observations as well as hydrographic evidence suggest an active role for boundary current dynamics in shaping the energetics and water mass properties of the interior region

seasonal to interannual variability of the eddy field in the labrador sea from satellite altimetry sea level anomalies measured by the altimeters aboard the topex poseidon and ers satellites for the periods 1993 2001 and 1997 2001 respectively are used to investigate the eddy field in the subpolar north atlantic and in the labrador sea a quadratic correction of the obtained eddy kinetic energy eke with respect to significant wave height is applied that led to an increased correlation between moored and altimetric eke in the central labrador sea the mean eke field shows higher levels associated with the main currents and a strong seasonality in the labrador sea the annual cycle of the eke shows a propagation of west greenland current wgc eke into the central labrador sea with a mean southward propagation speed of about 3 cm s 1 while the eke maximum in the labrador current is well separated from the interior by local eke minima the interannual variability of the eke in the labrador sea shows distinct regional differences in the wgc region strong early winter maxima are found during 1993 and 1997 1999 in the central labrador sea maxima are found during march april 1993 1995 and 1997 variations in the annual cycle of the wgc eke are observed while there is a weak annual cycle in the wgc region during 1994 1996 with more continuous eke generation during 1997 2000 there is a strong seasonal cycle with maximum eke during january and particularly low eke during summer the propagation of wgc eke into the central labrador sea is enhanced during 1997 2000 leading to a long persistence of eke in the central labrador sea during 1993 1995 and 1997 the central labrador sea eke almost instantaneously increased during march april followed in the earlier years by a relatively fast destruction of the winterly generated eke

is the north atlantic in sverdrup balance abstract evidence for the widespread assumption that sverdrup balance describes the dynamics of the north atlantic subtropical gyre is reviewed critically if the balance were to hold up to the edge of the gulf stream system then there is a serious conflict with existing estimates of the net meridional flux of heat if a recirculation region near the stream is excluded then one loses numerical agreement between a geostrophic calculation of the interior mass flux and the opposite gulf stream transport our conclusion is that while the linear vorticity balance may well apply over much of the north atlantic subtropical gyre there is little evidence supporting the special version called sverdrup balance even in the relatively quiescent region east of the mid atlantic ridge to the contrary simple order of magnitude estimates suggest that it is just as likely that the flows are dominated by bottom induced vertical velocities as they are directly driven by the wind stress curl

eddy kinetic energy of the north atlantic subpolar gyre from satellite altimetry the surface eddy kinetic energy field of the north atlantic subpolar gyre 40 65 n 5 60 w is studied using the altimetric satellites geosat 1987 1988 and ers 1 1992 1993 this is on the whole an area of low eddy activity previous studies of the north atlantic have usually concentrated on the highly variable gulf stream system we review what is known of the surface circulation of the region we confirm that there is a close relationship between the eddy kinetic energy and the mean currents and that it is strongly constrained by the topography the eddy field occurs in deep water and follows the contours particularly around the flemish cap high eddy kinetic energy is seen on the flanks of topography and is higher where the slope is steeper this is particularly clear on both east and west flanks of the rockall plateau interannual changes in the currents are revealed by the differences between the geosat and ers 1 eddy kinetic energy maps in some years 1988 and 1992 1993 the northern core of the north atlantic current nac usually assumed to be tied to the charlie gibbs fracture zone 52 n is considerably weaker and may not exist at all while in 1987 there is a distinct core here in 1988 and 1992 1993 the main eddy region shifts farther to the south to about 49 n in 1988 and 50 n in 1992 1993 in 1987 there is also a current core even farther south centered at about 47 n implying that in that year the nac is arranged into two distinct branches

a comparison of surface eddy kinetic energy and reynolds stresses in the gulf stream and the kuroshio current systems from merged topex poseidon and ers 1 2 altimetric data analyses of surface eddy kinetic energy eke inferred from 5 years of merged topex poseidon and ers 1 2 altimetric data are presented in the gulf stream gs and the kuroshio ks current systems focusing on anisotropy and eke seasonal interannual and long term variations as well as reynolds stresses for both gs and ks a descriptive analysis of the eke field shows that it is anisotropic along the path of the currents and assesses the close relationship between the spatial distribution of eke high levels and bottom topography a striking ocean feature is found in the gs shaped as a zonal double blade structure in the eke field centered at 37 n 71 5 w that likely corresponds to a regular and permanent lateral displacement of the mean path of the current at this geographical location maps of eke seasonal means for years 1993 1996 and 1997 provide a detailed description of the surface variability meanders pinched off eddies etc and show strong interannual variations in the ks eke monthly mean changes in the ks reveal a well marked seasonal cycle during the first 3 years 1993 1995 with eke peaking in july august this is followed by a constant increase of its level from the beginning of year 1996 till the beginning of 1997 during this increase the zonal velocity variance u 2 is up to 30 higher than its meridional counterpart suggesting a zonal acceleration of the eastward flow eke seasonal changes are also found in the ks current 30 35 n 130 140 e and also show a regular annual cycle during the first 3 years which precedes by 2 months the eke seasonal cycle in the ks extension maximum in may june the maximum in eke in both regions precedes by 2 months the maximum surface transport found by qiu et al 1991 and zlotnicki 1991 occurring in july and late september respectively no such annual cycle is found in the gs region during the first 3 years year 1996 is anomalous in both current systems with mean eke level that increases by more than 20 compared to the other years also eke monthly mean changes in the ks reveal a well marked positive tendency in the eastern part of the current of more than 300 cm2 s 2 yr 1 and a negative tendency both in its eastern part and in the ks current this feature is absent from the gs at last eddy mean flow interaction is presented both the spatial averaging of turbulent quantities and the relative contribution of the different terms of the horizontal momentum fluxes are discussed a tentative explanation is given for the anomalously large u 2 at the end of 1996 in the ks extension

wind influence on the mesoscale activity along the gulf stream and the north atlantic currents two independent data sets are used to diagnose the wind effect on the mesoscale activity in the north atlantic ocean the oceanic surface variability is described with topex poseidon sea surface height measurements from october 1992 to september 1997 spatial extensions and temporal variations of high mesoscale activity are compared with the zonal and meridional components of the ers 1 wind stress the ekman pumping and the zonal sverdrupian velocity regions with high mesoscale surface variability seem to be correlated to regions with eastward sverdrupian velocities when the sverdrupian velocity is eastward and increases with time the mesoscale activity is intensified indicating a growth of instability rates theoretical and numerical results based on the interplay of barotropic eastward sverdrup flows and westward propagation of long rossby waves suggest that the wind controls western regions where baroclinic instability is favored interactions between the eddy field and the mean circulation are therefore analyzed to try to extract the instability mechanism responsible for the growth of the mesoscale activity along the gulf stream and the north atlantic current our results seem to suggest that the seasonal changes of mesoscale activity associated with eastward currents are linked to seasonal changes of the eastward sverdrupian velocity

seasonal and interannual changes in the north atlantic subpolar gyre from geosat and topex poseidon altimetry sea surface slopes from the altimetric satellites geosat and topex poseidon are used to calculate eddy kinetic energy of the north atlantic subpolar gyre 40 65 n 60 5 w using two years of data from each satellite december 1986 to december 1988 and october 1992 to september 1994 respectively interannual differences in the north atlantic current nac are revealed in regions of strong currents the eddies are driven by baroclinic instability of the mean flow are not seasonally varying and may therefore be used as a surrogate for the mean flow itself wind stress curl fields for the same periods show that the northward and southward shifts in the current branches across the mid atlantic ridge are related to interannual differences in the winter wind stress curl pattern when the zero in wind stress curl is well defined and wind stress is at a maximum outside the nac the eddies are driven primarily by wind stress indicated by a significant seasonality time series of eddy kinetic energy and wind stress are generated for the 4 years and the magnitude phase and significance of annual and semiannual signals are determined interannual changes in the timing of the maximum eddy kinetic energy are associated with that of the maximum wind stress with each being shifted by a month or two later or earlier throughout much of the northern north atlantic a significant annual signal in eddy kinetic energy is observed lagging the wind stress by on average 6 weeks a negligible lag is found in the region of the east greenland current and irminger sea whereas the greatest lag about 2 months is found in the labrador sea

observed mean and mesoscale upper ocean circulation in the midlatitude northeast atlantic 1 lagrangian instruments and altimetry data are used to investigate the upper 0 to 500 m mean and mesoscale circulations in a region of the midlatitude northeast atlantic 36 47 n 13 23 w a formation and subduction area of subpolar mode water lagrangian data were collected between september 2000 and september 2001 with isobaric subsurface floats totaling 34 0 float years and surface drifting buoys totaling 27 9 buoy years the near surface 0 100 m mean circulation is dominated by two weak 5 cm s eastward currents which veer southward in the domain in the 100 to 500 m deep layer these eastward mean currents retroflect westward and form two anticyclonic circulation cells opened to the west and separated by a cyclonic cell eddy kinetic energy is decreasing from the northwest to the southeast of the area from 100 200 cm s 2 to 20 30 cm s 2 long lived anticyclones and cyclones display mean coherent displacements both to the southwest westward eddy propagation speeds close to that of long rossby waves increase southward and are consistent with a superposition of beta effect and advection by mean currents southward eddy displacements are coherent with the observed mean currents in the north anticyclones are seen to consist of central and subpolar mode water eddies most of them likely originating from the eastern boundary whereas in the south most anticyclonic features result from the influence of mediterranean water eddies meddies on the upper layers cyclonic activity is concentrated in cyclonic zones which are seen to exchange floats and water properties

role of 3d seismic for quantitative shallow hazard assessment in deepwater sediments increased drilling activities in deep water since 1985 especially in the gulf of mexico gom have revealed numerous hazards in the shallow sediments below the seabed such as fault scarps gas vents unstable slopes and reefs and shallow subsurface geologic hazards such as faults gas charged sediments buried channels abnormally pressured sands and gas hydrates drilling risks associated with shallow aquifer pressured sands or shallow water flow swf sands and gas hydrates have received the most attention these are global problems in the gom alone more than us 250 million has been lost due to swf while the industry has matured in handling these problems it is estimated that the losses associated with swf sands continue to be nearly 1 7 million per well in the gom alone

global wind stress and sverdrup circulation from the seasat scatterometer abstract three months of vector wind observations from the seasat a satellite scatterometer sass are used to construct gridded fields of monthly average wind stress and wind stress curl over the global ocean these fields are examined to identify features either poorly resolved or not present in wind stress fields constructed from conventional data particular attention is focused on the spatial structures in the high southern latitudes and the tropical regions the sass wind stress fields are compared globally with the hellerman and rosenstein climatological monthly average surface wind stress fields and with monthly averages of wind stress computed from contemporaneous 1000 mb wind analyses produced by the national meterological center the potential for satellite scatterometry improving the present knowledge of the global wind stress field and making important contributions to ocean modeling is demonstrated by comparison of global maps of the sverdrup circulation computed from 3 month average sass an

labrador sea boundary currents and the fate of the irminger sea water abstract the general circulation of the labrador sea is studied with a dataset of 53 surface drifters drogued at 15 m and several hydrographic sections done in may 1997 surface drifters indicate three distinct speed regimes fast boundary currents a slower crossover from greenland to labrador and a slow eddy dominated flow in the basin interior mean eulerian velocity maps show several recirculation cells located offshore of the main currents in addition to the cyclonic circulation of the labrador sea above the northern slope of the basin the surface drifters have two preferential paths one between the 1000 m and 2000 m isobaths and the other close to the 3000 m isobath the vertical shear estimated from ctd data supports the presence of two distinct currents around the basin one current more baroclinic flows between the 1000 m and 2000 m isobaths the other one more barotropic flows above the lower continental slope the irminger sea water carried by the boundary currents is altered as it tr

upper ocean eddy transports of heat potential vorticity and volume in the northeastern north atlantic vivaldi 1991 abstract mesoscale eddies in the northeast north atlantic were investigated using the seasoar towed ctd and adcp data from the 1991 vivaldi cruise these data cover an area of 1700 km 1500 km between 39 and 54 n and between 35 and 10 w to maximize statistical significance but retain the possibility of determining north south gradients statistics of eddy quantities were calculated separately for the northern and southern halves of the cruise area the mean flow in the south is essentially zero in the north the flow is dominated by the north atlantic current nac with a mean speed of 6 5 cm s 1 the eddy kinetic energy in the south 205 cm2 s 2 is however only slightly less than in the north 272 cm2 s 2 the eddy momentum transports or reynolds stresses u show a poleward decrease corresponding to an acceleration of the mean eastward flow associated with the nac of 0 03 cm s 1 day 1 the eddy heat transports u t are not significantly different from zero in the south but show a clear po

comment postglacial relative sea level observations from ireland and their role in glacial rebound modelling a j brooks s l bradley r j edwards g a milne b horton and i shennan 2008 journal of quaternary science23 175 192

puzzling over the dynamics of the lofoten basin a sub arctic hot spot of ocean variability 1 a sub arctic hot spot of intense synoptic scale variability is observed in the lofoten basin lb of the norwegian sea using ers 1 2 and envisat satellite altimetry measurements we discover a cyclonic propagation of the synoptic scale sea surface height anomalies around the center of the lb surface drifter trajectories do not reveal an associated coherent near surface cyclonic flow suggesting that the propagating signals have a wavelike nature we identify a dipole and a quadrupole wave modes rotating around the center of the lb obtain analytic dispersion relations for these modes and demonstrate that the observed propagation is a manifestation of topographic rossby waves most of the observed waves have a wavelength of about 500 km and phase speeds ranging from 2 to 10 km day we show that these waves are largely responsible for the localization and amplification of sea surface height variability in the center of the lb

eddy kinetic energy in the north atlantic from surface drifters one hundred ten satellite tracked freely drifting buoys measured velocities and trajectories of the near surface currents in the north atlantic mean velocity values and the velocity variance about the mean were calculated for different regions a horizontal map of eddy kinetic energy was prepared on a 2 2 grid between latitudes 20 and 55 n maximum eddy energy 3000 cm2 s 2 coincides with the high speed gulf stream jet where it begins large amplitude meanders near 37 n 67 w a tongue of high eddy energy coincides with the stream s path eastward and around the grand banks into the newfoundland basin where values of 1000 cm2 s 2 are found a weaker tongue extends eastward across the mid atlantic ridge near 45 n a second weak extension reaches southeastward from the stream and crosses the mid atlantic ridge between 30 and 35 n north and south of the stream eddy energy diminishes rapidly reaching an e folding at 300 km from the axis values of 200 cm2 s 2 were observed in the mid gyre region and 100 cm2 s 2 in the eastern north atlantic and north equatorial current although the gross distribution of eddy energy is similar to that determined from ship drift measurements there are significant differences eddy energy from drifters amounts to about twice the value measured by ship drift in the gulf stream and one half the ship drift values in the mid gyre it is suggested that these differences are due to the horizontal averaging of mesoscale motion and the errors in navigation both of which are problems with the ship drift technique

oceanic tides from geosat altimetry direct tidal analysis of the altimetry from the geosat exact repeat mission s first year is used to derive estimates of the diurnal and semidiurnal oceanic tides the geoid is removed by collinear differences at 34 1 day separation and the orbit error is reduced by subtracting a slowly modulated 1 cycle revolution term a sequence of independent analyses at grid areas of 1 latitude 1 5 longitude using orthotide functions ensures complete definition of the diurnal and semidiurnal species global admittance maps for m2 and s2 within the latitudes 58 n and 59 s compare well with ground truth at 66 open ocean sites maps of differences between geosat and the naval surface weapons center model show important areas of the order of 10 15 cm the integral for the global power input from the moon gives 2 51 tw m2 0 44 tw s2 lower than many previous estimates but in agreement with figures deduced from a recent analysis of satellite orbits