Gulf Stream Velocities
Gulf Stream velocity
fields are derived from near-realtime radar altimeter data of the
European Remote Sensing Satellite
ERS-2
The altimetric
heights are processed and disseminated by
ESA/ESRIN
and enhanced by
NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry
with the appropriate geophysical
corrections and information on the satellite
orbital altitude
computed by
DEOS.
Below
you find an example of the map of current velocities of the Gulf
Stream in the vicinity of the East coast of North-America.
(Click
HERE to view
today's charts)
The
Gulf Stream main current is indicated by green dots. Just north of
the Gulf Stream you can see a small warm-core eddy north of the Gulf
Stream main current. This clockwise eddy traps warm water from the
south of the current (Sargasso Sea). South of the main current you
see a huge anti-clockwise (cold-core) eddy that has trapped a huge
chunk of cold water from the Labrador Sea. You can also see how a
meander is forming in the main current. Later this meander closes
and sheds of another cold-core eddy like the one east of it.
The
velocities of the currents are represented by colors as well as by
arrows. Brighter colors indicate higher velocities. As the color bar
at the bottom shows, velocities are in the range of 0 to 1 m/s
(meters per second), which corresponds roughly to 0 to 2 knots
(nautical miles per hour). The size of the arrows also refer to the
magnitude of the velocity, an arrow of 1 m/s (approx. 2 knots) is
drawn in the lower right corner, next to the color bar. The
directions in which the arrows point is the direction of the
current. Thus, an arrow pointing to the right indicates an eastward
flow.
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