Driven by the wind, the highly energetic circulation patterns of the upper ocean play important roles in the global distribution of heat and nutrients. Despite this importance, many aspects of upper ocean dynamics are poorly known, especially how its variability is characterized by the interaction of different types of motion and scales.
To investigate the properties of upper ocean variability, Griffa et al. study data from instrument-laden buoys, called surface drifters, which are carried by ocean currents while collecting data. The authors focus on the subtropic and subpolar regions (10 to 60 degrees latitude), an area well sampled by drifters. They compute the ocean surface cyclonic and anticyclonic motion for scales ranging from large vortices to smaller eddies. The authors find two zonal bands of small-scale motion: one a known wind-induced anticyclonic band at 30 to 40 degrees latitude, and the other an unexpected cyclonic band at 10 to 20 degrees latitude. The latter might be due to fine-scale processes related to salinity front instabilities. These results provide a first global view of the upper ocean through drifter data.-American Geophysical Union
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