The North Atlantic Current (NAC), also known as North Atlantic Drift and North Atlantic Sea Movement, is a powerful warm western boundary current within the Atlantic Ocean that extends the Gulf Stream northeastward.
The bluefish is the only extant species of the family Pomatomidae. It is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and subtropical waters, except for the northern Pacific Ocean. Bluefish are known as tailor in Australia and New Zealand, elf and shad in South Africa. It is a popular gamefish and food fish.
A nor'easter, or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use of the term in North America is associated with storms that affect the upper north Atlantic coast of the United States and the Atlantic Provinces of Canada.
The Agulhas Current is the western boundary current of the southwest Indian Ocean. It flows south along the east coast of Africa from 27°S to 40°S. It is narrow, swift and strong. It is suggested that it is the largest western boundary current in the world ocean, with an estimated net transport of 70 sverdrups, as western boundary currents at comparable latitudes transport less — Brazil Current, Gulf Stream, Kuroshio.
The westerlies, anti-trades, or prevailing westerlies, are prevailing winds from the west toward the east in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude. They originate from the high-pressure areas in the horse latitudes and trend towards the poles and steer extratropical cyclones in this general manner. Tropical cyclones which cross the subtropical ridge axis into the westerlies recurve due to the increased westerly flow. The winds are predominantly from the southwest in the Northern Hemisphere and from the northwest in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Kuroshio Current, also known as the Black or Japan Current or the Black Stream, is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Kuroshio is a powerful western boundary current that transports warm equatorial water poleward and forms the western limb of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Off the East Coast of Japan, it merges with the Oyashio Current to form the North Pacific Current.
The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Scotia, this cold water current meets the warm northward moving Gulf Stream. The combination of these two currents produces heavy fogs and has also created one of the richest fishing grounds in the world.
The New York Bight is the geological identification applied to a roughly triangular indentation, regarded as a bight, along the Atlantic coast of the United States that extends northeasterly from Cape May Inlet in New Jersey to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island. As the result of direct contact with the Gulf Stream along the coast of North America, the coastal climate of the bight area is temperate.
A parent to the Florida Current, the Loop Current is a warm ocean current that flows northward between Cuba and the Yucatán Peninsula, moves north into the Gulf of Mexico, loops east and south before exiting to the east through the Florida Straits and joining the Gulf Stream. The Loop Current is an extension of the western boundary current of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Serving as the dominant circulation feature in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Loop Currents transports between 23 and 27 sverdrups and reaches maximum flow speeds of from 1.5 to 1.8 meters/second.
Hurricane Able was a rare hurricane that formed outside the typical North Atlantic hurricane season. The second tropical storm and first hurricane of 1951, Able developed from a trough of low pressure on May 15 about 300 miles (480 km) south of Bermuda. Initially subtropical in nature, Able acquired tropical characteristics as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and attained hurricane status on May 17 off the coast of Florida. This made Able one of only four May Atlantic hurricanes on record. On May 22 Able reached peak winds of 90 mph (140 km/h) about 70 miles (110 km) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The hurricane weakened as it turned eastward, and became an extratropical cyclone on May 23, before dissipating on the next day.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to Oceanography.
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude and moves toward Northwest Europe as the North Atlantic Current. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward-accelerating current off the east coast of North America. Around 40°0′N30°0′W, it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current, recirculating off West Africa.
The Gulf Stream separates from the US coast near Cape Hatteras and then travels eastwards across the North Atlantic, becoming the North Atlantic current at about 55°W. In the region between 75°W and 55°W it is subject to meanders and is frequently accompanied by eddies. The northern edge of the current is marked by a sharp fall in temperature. This is also the case at much greater depths, so that the warm current is pressed up against a wall of cold water, called the 'north wall'. Monthly charts of the path of the north wall of the Gulf Stream have been available from surface, aircraft and satellite observations since 1966 and these have been used in several studies of the path's variability.
In oceanography, a front is a boundary between two distinct water masses. The formation of fronts depends on multiple physical processes and small differences in these lead to a wide range of front types. They can be as narrow as a few hundreds of metres and as wide as several tens of kilometres. While most fronts form and dissipate relatively quickly, some can persist for long periods of time.
Cold core rings are a type of oceanic eddy, which are characterized as unstable, time-dependent swirling, independent ‘cells’ that separate from their respective ocean current and move into water bodies with different physical, chemical, and biological characteristics, often bringing the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the waters of their origin into the water bodies into which they travel. Their size can range from 1 millimeter (0.039 in) to over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 mi) in diameter with depths over 5 kilometers (3.1 mi). Cold core rings are the product of warm water currents wrapping around a colder water mass as it deviates away from its respective current. The direction an eddy swirls can be categorized as either cyclonic or anticyclonic, which is, in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise and clockwise respectively, and in the Southern Hemisphere, clockwise and counterclockwise respectively as a result of the Coriolis effect. Although eddies have large amounts of kinetic energy, their rotation is relatively quick to decrease in relation to the amount of viscous friction in water. They typically last for a few weeks to a year. The nature of eddies are such that the center of the eddy, the outer swirling ring, and the surrounding waters are well stratified and maintain all of their distinctive physical, chemical, and biological properties throughout the eddy’s lifetime, before losing their distinctive characteristics at the end of the life of the cold core ring.
Haida Eddies are episodic, clockwise rotating ocean eddies that form during the winter off the west coast of British Columbia's Haida Gwaii and Alaska's Alexander Archipelago. These eddies are notable for their large size, persistence, and frequent recurrence. Rivers flowing off the North American continent supply the continental shelf in the Hecate Strait with warmer, fresher, and nutrient-enriched water. Haida eddies are formed every winter when this rapid outflow of water through the strait wraps around Cape St. James at the southern tip of Haida Gwaii, and meets with the cooler waters of the Alaska Current. This forms a series of plumes which can merge into large eddies that are shed into the northeast Pacific Ocean by late winter, and may persist for up to two years.
A Wind generated current is a flow in a body of water that is generated by wind friction on its surface. Wind can generate surface currents on water bodies of any size. The depth and strength of the current depend on the wind strength and duration, and on friction and viscosity losses, but are limited to about 400 m depth by the mechanism, and to lesser depths where the water is shallower. The direction of flow is influenced by the Coriolis effect, and is offset to the right of the wind direction in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. A wind current can induce secondary water flow in the form of upwelling and downwelling, geostrophic flow, and western boundary currents.
The Northeastern United States Continental Shelf (NEUS) is the large marine ecosystem designated by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that occupies the portion of the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean. The NEUS is defined as extending roughly from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras in the US state of North Carolina. This large marine ecosystem is notable for its proximity to the Gulf Stream current, meridional variation of climate, and commercial fisheries.
Ring shedding is a phenomenon in ocean currents where circle or ring-shaped eddies separate from the current. The rings are independent water current systems that can persist for several months and occur in most ocean basins. The separated rings can have both warm or cold cores and play a role in the thermohaline circulation, interocean mixing, and nutrient supply for algae and bacteria. The physical processes behind ring shedding are not fully understood yet and are thus an active subject of research.
The South Atlantic Bight is a bight in the United States coastline extending from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to the Upper Florida Keys. The Bight forms the western boundary of the Sargasso Sea and the Gulf Stream ocean current forms the eastern boundary of the ecosystem of the bight. Major cities along the bight include from north to south: Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami.
