North Atlantic Current

"North Atlantic Drift" redirects here. For the 2003 rock album by Ocean Color Scene, see North Atlantic Drift (album).

Schematic of the world's ocean currents

The North Atlantic Current (also known as North Atlantic Drift and North Atlantic Sea Movement) is a powerful warm ocean current that continues the Gulf Stream northeast. West of Continental Europe it splits into two major branches. One branch goes southeast, later to become the Canary Current as it passes northwest Africa and turns southwest. The other major branch continues north along the coast of northwestern Europe. It is thought to have a considerable warming influence on the climate, although a minority have disputed this.^[1] Other branches include the Irminger Current and the Norwegian Current. Driven by the global thermohaline circulation (THC), the North Atlantic Current is part of the wind-driven Gulf Stream which goes further east and north from the North American coast, across the Atlantic and into the Arctic Ocean.

References

↑ R. SEAGER, D. S. BATTISTI, J. YIN, N. GORDON, N. NAIK, A. C. CLEMENT, and M. A. CANE (2002). "Is the Gulf Stream responsible for Europe’s mild winters?" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. Retrieved 2010-10-25.

External links

The North Atlantic Current. Elizabeth Rowe, Arthur J. Mariano, Edward H. Ryan, The Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies

Ocean currents and gyres

Currents

Arctic Ocean	East Greenland Norwegian Transpolar Drift Stream

Atlantic Ocean	Agulhas Angola Antilles Azores Baffin Island Benguela Brazil Canary Cape Horn Caribbean East Greenland East Iceland Falkland Florida Guinea Gulf Stream Irminger Labrador Lomonosov Loop North Atlantic North Brazil North Equatorial Norwegian Portugal Slope Jet South Atlantic South Equatorial Spitsbergen West Greenland

Indian Ocean	Agulhas East Madagascar Equatorial Counter Current Indian Monsoon Current Indonesian Throughflow Leeuwin Madagascar Mozambique Somali South Australian South Equatorial West Australian

Pacific Ocean	Alaska Aleutian California Cromwell East Australia Equatorial Counter Current Humboldt Indonesian Throughflow Kamchatka Kuroshio Mindanao North Equatorial North Pacific Oyashio South Equatorial

Southern Ocean	Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Gyres

Major gyres	Indian Ocean Gyre North Atlantic Gyre South Atlantic Gyre North Pacific Gyre South Pacific Gyre

Other gyres	Beaufort Gyre Ross Gyre Weddell Gyre

North Atlantic Current

See also

References

External links