Identification

Title

The general circulation of the western subtropical North Atlantic observed using profiling floats

Abstract

The general circulation of the subtropical western North Atlantic is described using hydrography and subsurface velocity measured simultaneously by 71 profiling floats during the period July 1997 to December 2002. Subsurface trajectories of the floats revealed a strong topographic influence and depth-dependence of the Gulf Stream, its recirculation gyres, and the North Atlantic Current. We discuss eddy-like and nonsteady flows in several subregions, especially near the major topographic features. The seasonal cycle of volume transport, estimated using the absolute geostrophic velocity in the upper 900 m, was shown to be a maximum in winter and minimum in summer. The eddy kinetic energy and eddy diffusivity, derived from the float data and mapped over the subtopical gyre, show seasonal variability in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream with a maximum in spring and minimum in winter for both quantities.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d78w3dn6

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2005-10-14T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact