Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean☆

Inga M Koszalka and Lothar Stramma, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research & University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction 204
Historical Perspective 204
Large-Scale Circulation of the Atlantic 205
Horizontal and Vertical Extent 205
Upper Ocean Circulation in the Atlantic 205
Intermediate and Deep Circulation of the Atlantic Ocean 208
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation 208
Variability of the Atlantic Current Systems 209
Short-Term and Meso-(and Smaller)-Scale Variability 209
Long-Term and Large-Scale Variability 210
Future Aspects 210
Further Reading 211

Glossary
Sverdrup (symbol: Sv) Is a non-SI unit of volume transport used in oceanography to measure the volume flux of ocean
currents. It calculated from a product of the normal velocity and cross-sectional area. (1 Sv ¼ 106 m3 s1) It is named after
Norwegian oceanographer and meteorologist, Harald Sverdrup (1880–1957).

Introduction

The Atlantic Ocean is the most studied and best understood of the World Oceans, for the reason of its importance for the European
and American societies. Since the 16th century the marine trans-Atlantic passenger fright and trade have been constantly developing
and the knowledge of the Gulf Stream and other current systems in the Atlantic became crucial, prompting scientific investigations.
By the late 19th century the large-scale surface circulation of the Atlantic Ocean had been mapped out. Rapidly growing number of
observations in the 20th century, accompanied by numerical modeling efforts, fathomed out the deep flows and spotlighted intense
variability of the Atlantic currents on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. The unique thermohaline circulation of the
Atlantic Ocean plays a vital role in the global climate system. The warm upper-ocean currents, originating in part from the Pacific
and Indian Oceans, transport mass and heat through the South Atlantic and toward the North Atlantic and influence atmospheric
heat and moisture on synoptic, seasonal and longer time scales. The cold deep waters of the North Atlantic flow southward, cross the
South Atlantic, and are exported into the Indian and the Pacific Oceans; these modulate the global climate on decadal and longer
time scales. The challenge remains to develop and optimize observational and modeling frameworks able to monitor multiscale
variability of the Atlantic currents and to predict their interactions with the global climate system with attendant socio-economic
consequences.

Historical Perspective

By the 5th century AD, mariners had probably acquired intimate knowledge of coastal currents in the Mediterranean, and the
medieval Norse sailors were likely familiar with many facets of North Atlantic oceanography, meteorology and climate including
the surface boundary current system, tides, and sea ice, but little information about them is reported in Classical writing. The
voyages of discovery brought startling observations of many of the Atlantic’s most important ocean currents. The Gulf Stream
(a warm, strong ocean current that pushes northeast from the Gulf of Mexico, up the Atlantic coast, toward Europe) appears to have
been mapped as early as 1525 (by Ribeiro) on the basis of Spanish pilot charts. Significant advances in mapping the global ocean

☆
Change History: May 2018. Inga M. Koszalka and Lothar Stramma updated in the text. The section “Basin Structure” was removed; the section “Historical
Developments” was renamed to “Historical Perspective.” The old sections were modified and new subsections “Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation”
and “Variability of the Atlantic Current systems” were added. Figures 1 and 2 were removed and some figures 3 and 5 were put together as Figure 1; also added a
panel B to Figure 2. Table 1 was updated. An animation was added (Movie.gif ). The references list (Further Reading) was updated. Krauss, 1986 was removed.
Haine et al. (2008), Carton and Hakkinen, Eds., (2011) and Siedler, Griffies, Gould and Church (Eds), (2013) were added.
This is an update of L. Stramma, Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean, Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (2nd Edn), edited by John H. Steele, Academic Press, 2001,
pp. 718–727.

204 Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, 3rd Edition https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11291-6

 Currents | Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean 205

circulation came only after the invention of the marine chronometer whereby routine determination of longitude at sea was
instituted; as one of the first came the highly accurate “Chart of the Gulf Stream” (1786, by Franklin and Folger). In the early 19th
century data from the Atlantic were collected and reduced in a systematic fashion (by James Rennell), to produce the first detailed
description of the major circulation patterns at the surface for the entire mid- and low-latitude Atlantic, along with evidence for
cross-equatorial flow. This work provided a foundation for the assemblage of a global data set (by Humboldt and Berghaus) that
yielded worldwide charts of the nonpolar currents by the late 1830s. A next advance came with the understanding of the effect of
Earth’s rotation on large-scale motion through the so-called Coriolis force that produces flow perpendicular to horizontal pressure
gradients to the right (left) on the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere (geostrophic balance; 1856, Ferrel). The precedents for modern
dedicated research cruises came in the 1870s (e.g., the Challenger cruise). With the ever-increasing numbers of observations made at
and near the surface, the upper-layer circulation in nonpolar latitudes was approximately described by the late 1880s. Application of
the Miller-Casella thermometer enabling measurements down to 2500 m provided a growing evidence for the existence of a deep
and global thermohaline circulation (Carpenter, Prestwich) followed by the invention of a device for obtaining samples of seawater
at a specific depth (1894, Nansen). Further development was provided by understanding of how wind can drive ocean circulation
(1928, Ekman), and by application of the dynamical method that enabled derivation of geostrophic currents from hydrographic
(temperature, salinity) measurements. At the time of the German Meteor expedition (1925–1927) a vision of the horizontal and
vertical circulation in the Atlantic with layering of the different water masses was not far from our present concept of the Atlantic’s
large-scale “overturning circulation” as drawn in Fig. 1.

Large-Scale Circulation of the Atlantic

Horizontal and Vertical Extent
The Atlantic Ocean extends both into the Arctic and Antarctic regions, giving it the largest meridional extent of all oceans. Here we
describe the Atlantic Ocean as a region between the Arctic Circle at 66.5 N crossing the Baffin Bay and the gateway into the Nordic
Seas (demarcated by the Denmark Strait, Iceland Faeroe Ridge and Faeroe Bank Channel), and the southern tips of South America
and South Africa at 55 S which separate the Atlantic Ocean from the Southern Ocean (see Fig. 1). The Atlantic Ocean has a large
number of adjacent seas, and the larger ones are discussed in other articles. The equatorial line separates the North Atlantic from the
South Atlantic. The average depth is 3646 m (11,962 ft) and the maximum depth is 8486 m (27,841 ft). In this article, the Atlantic
current systems are discussed in terms of “the upper ocean” and “deep circulation” (Fig. 1A and B). This two layer view is motivated
by the vertical distribution of water masses and intensity of the circulation. The upper ocean waters are warm and the predominantly
wind-driven currents are strong (typically, 0.1–1 ms1). This layer of warm waters is bounded from below by a strong temperature
gradient (thermocline) at temperatures between 8 and 10 C and is relatively thin: it reaches to 500–1000 m depth in the Atlantic’s
subtropics and rapidly rises toward the ocean surface poleward of about 40 latitude. The underlying deep waters are cold and the
currents are generally an order of magnitude slower.

Upper Ocean Circulation in the Atlantic

The upper ocean is rudimentary for seafaring and maritime economy and is also a crucial player in weather and climate processes
due to its direct interaction with the atmosphere. Traditionally relying on ship-borne observations, our knowledge of the upper
ocean has advanced considerably in the last two decades thanks to remote sensing of sea-surface temperature, salinity and height as
well as the growing array of surface drifters.
The near-surface currents are driven primarily by the wind (zonal, westward flow under the trade winds, and eastward flow under
the mid-latitude westerly winds) and forced into circulation cells (gyres) by the continental boundaries (Fig. 1A). The Atlantic
subtropical gyre circulation consists of two anticyclonic subtropical gyres, clockwise in the Northern and counterclockwise in the
Southern Hemisphere. The subtropical gyre of the North Atlantic consists of western boundary currents: the Florida Current, the Gulf
Stream and its poleward continuation to the Nordic Seas, the North Atlantic Current, and the eastern boundary currents, the Azores
and Canary Currents. The gyre is closed by the North Equatorial Current, and the Caribbean, Cayman and Loop Current in the
Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The subtropical gyre of the South Atlantic includes the Brazil Current as poleward flowing western
boundary current, which turns eastward at the Brazil/Falkland (Malvinas) confluence region near 40 S as the South Atlantic Current.
The South Atlantic Current bifurcates and partly continues to the Indian Ocean and partly joins the flow carried by the Agulhas
retroflection forming the northward-flowing Benguela Current and the westward-flowing South Equatorial Current. Near the coast
of north Brazil the South Equatorial Current contributes in part to the Brazil Current, but in part also to the subsurface intensified
North Brazil Undercurrent advecting the warm water from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere. The northward extent of the
South Atlantic subtropical gyre decreases with increasing depth. It is located near Brazil at 16 S in the near-surface layer and at 26 S
in the layer of low salinity Antarctic Intermediate Water formed at the Antarctic Polar Front Zone.
A striking feature of the gyre circulation is the asymmetry. The currents are stronger on the western side of the ocean basins. This
western intensification is explained by the theory of wind-driven ocean circulation subject to latitudinal variation of the Coriolis
force (Earth’s rotation rate speeding up toward the poles) and the frictional torque associated with the bottom stress. The resulting
energetic western boundary currents: the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Brazil Current in
 (A) (B)

206
100°W 75°W 50°W 25°W 0° 25°E 100°W 75 °W 50° W 25° W 0° 25°E

sin ian
D

Ba rweg
S

Currents | Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean

No
IFR

C
EG
W

La
IC FBC 60°N

G
60°N 60°N 60° N

br in
C
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Ba

ad
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NAC Biscay
Abyssal
Plain
40°N

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40°N 40°N 40°N

dg
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North

lan
Ca
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At
GM Basin Cape

Mid
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Abyssal
20°N NE C 20°N 20° N 20°N
Plain

NECC/NEUC
NB
C
0° 0° 0° 0°
EUC SEUC RFZ
NBUC

AC
Brazil Ang ola

Mid Atlantic Ridge

Basin Abys sal
SECC Plain
20°S SEC 20°S 20°S 20°S
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e
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40°S 40°S Abyssal se Basin
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CDW
Drake Passage
60°S 60°S 60°S 60°S
100°W 75°W 50°W 25°W 0° 25°E 100° W 75° W 50° W 25° W 0° 25°E

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 -6000 4000 2000 0 2000 4000 6000

Fig. 1 Schematic representation of major current systems in the Atlantic Ocean. (A) Upper-ocean currents during Northern Fall superimposed on the time-mean (1982–2016) Sea Surface Temperature (source:
NOAA_OI_SST_V2 data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd). GM marks Gulf of Mexico and AR marks Agulhas Current Retroflection, for other abbreviations see Table 1.
(B) Schematic representation of the North Atlantic Deep Water flow (solid lines), Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) and Antarctic Bottom Water (dashed lines); DS, IFR and FBC denote Denmark Strait, Iceland Faeroe Ridge and
Faeroe Bank Channel, respectively, and RFZ stands for the Romanche Fracture Zone; MW marks the entrance of Mediterranean Water. For readability of the figure no recirculation cells are drawn. Bottom topography in 2000 m
steps.
 Currents | Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean 207

the South Atlantic Ocean, have large speeds (1 ms1) and typical width scales of 100 km. The main western boundary currents
(Gulf Stream and Brazil Currents) tend to have sub-basin-scale recirculation cells due the interaction of currents with topography
and conservation of potential vorticity constraints.
In the Tropics the two subtropical gyres are connected via a complicated tropical circulation system. The tropical circulation
shows a north-westward cross-equatorial flow at the western boundary and several zonal current and countercurrent bands (Figs.
1A and 2A) of smaller meridional and vertical extent and a complex vertical structure. The north-westward flow along the western
boundary starts as a subsurface flow, the North Brazil Undercurrent, which becomes surface intensified north of the north-eastern
tip of Brazil by near-surface inflow from the South Equatorial Current and is named North Brazil Current. The North Brazil
Current crosses the equator north-westwards and retroflects eastward at about 8 N. In northern spring, when the North
Equatorial Countercurrent is weak, there seems to be a continuous flow toward the Caribbean called Guyana Current. The
westward flows are regarded as different bands of the South Equatorial Current, the northern one even crossing the equator. The
eastward subsurface flows are named the Equatorial Undercurrent at the equator, and the North and South Equatorial Under-
currents at about 5 latitude. The eastward surface intensified flows at about 9 latitude are the North and South Equatorial
Countercurrents. In northern fall the North Equatorial Countercurrent and the North Equatorial Undercurrent override one
another and it is difficult to distinguish between the two current bands. At the equator at about 700 m, there is a flow of
intermediate-density water masses formed at the Antarctic polar front (Equatorial Intermediate Current), as well as north and
south of the equator (Northern and Southern Intermediate Countercurrents) which flow in the opposite direction to the currents
above (Fig. 2A). The Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Atlantic, where the trade winds of both hemispheres converge, is
located north of the equator throughout the year, and reaches the South Atlantic in southern summer and only at the north coast
of Brazil. Seasonal changes of the wind field lead obvious variations in the tropical near-surface currents; however, with different
strengths. The strongest seasonal signal is observed in the North Equatorial Countercurrent. The eastward-flowing North
Equatorial Countercurrent is strongest in August, when the Intertropical Convergence Zone is located at its northernmost
position. At that time the North Equatorial Countercurrent crosses the entire Atlantic basins zonally, but in late boreal winter
it becomes weak or even reverses to westward in the western domain. South of the Cape Verde Islands at 9 N, 25 W, there is a
cyclonic feature named Guinea Dome throughout the year, but it is weaker in northern winter. The Southern Hemispheric
counterpart is the Angola Dome at 10 S, 9 E. The Angola Dome is seen only in southern summer and it is embedded in a
permanent larger-scale cyclonic feature centered near 13 S, 5 E called Angola Gyre.
Poleward of the subtropical gyres the current field of the North and South Atlantic are very different. The subtropical gyre of the
South Atlantic is bounded from the south by the eastward flow of water all around the globe within the Antarctic Circumpolar
Current (ACC) that is driven mainly by the mid-latitudes westerlies. The Falkland (Malvinas) Current, which flows equatorward
along the south-eastern South American shelf edge to about 38 S is a meander of a branch of the ACC.
In the North Atlantic a cyclonic subpolar gyre is present, driven in part by the wind stress curl associated with the atmospheric
Icelandic low pressure system and in part by the fresh water from the subarctic. The subpolar gyre includes the northern part of the
North Atlantic Current, the Irminger Current, the East and West Greenland Currents and the Labrador Current off north-eastern
North America. The currents of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre have a strong barotropic flow component, which lead to large water
mass transports (Table 1).

(A) (B)
0 1 0
−0
NBC EUC NEC .02
27.68
0

−0

100 0.8
[km]

0
SEC 0.3
.0
-0.3

NEUC 2
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3

200 0.6
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SEUC 1 [m/s]
27.74
−0.04

300 0.4
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0

−0.14
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pressure (dbar)

.1
−0

400 0.2
0

−0.1
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0 27.8
−0

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800 0 -0.6 −0.2

LADCP
900 -0.8
−0.3 1997−2014
1000 -1
4°S 2° 0 2° 4° 6° 8°N 0 [km] 50 100 150 200

1
Fig. 2 Vertical structure of selected equatorial and subpolar Atlantic current systems. (A) Zonal velocity component in ms (eastward flow is positive) from direct
velocity measurements (ADCP) across the equator at 35 W in May 2002 north of the north-eastern tip of Brazil. Shown are: the North Brazil Current (NBC), the South
Equatorial Undercurrent (SEUC), the South Equatorial Current (SEC) with branches north and south of the equator separated by the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), the
North Equatorial Undercurrent (NEUC), the Equatorial Intermediate Current (EIC), the Northern Intermediate Countercurrent (NICC), and the Southern Intermediate
Countercurrent (SICC). (B) Long-term mean of Deep Western Boundary Current in the Labrador Sea at 53 N (outflow velocity component in cm s1) from shipboard
observations. The red lines mark isopycnals separating major water masses (see text). Modified from Zantopp et. al. (2017) to comply with the SI unit convention.
208 Currents | Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean

Intermediate and Deep Circulation of the Atlantic Ocean

When a water mass is subject to cooling or increase in salinity, it becomes dense and sinks. Dense waters form locally through
atmospheric cooling in the so-called convection areas in the Nordic, Irminger and Labrador Seas; through a combination of cooling
and brine rejection along the Arctic shelves and at the margin of Antarctica in the Ross and Weddell Seas; and due to intense
evaporation in the Mediterranean Sea. Traditionally, the dense waters are called “deep” when their potential density referenced to
the surface is equal or higher than 1028 kg m3 and “intermediate” when it is less, as the density determines their relative position
(layering) in the vertical. Because their original water properties (temperature, salinity, trace gases) change only slowly and
predictably in deep ocean due to mixing, the dense water masses can be identified with hydrographic measurements far away
from their formation regions; this is so-called “core method” whereby observations come from ship-borne, moored instruments and
a growing array of deep profiling (ARGO) floats and acoustically tracked (RAFOS) floats. The inferred pathways of major deep water
masses are sketched on Fig. 1B.
The major topographic features of the Atlantic strongly affect the deep currents, either by blocking or guiding the flow. The most
prominent is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge cutting zonally through the Atlantic Ocean, which in many parts rises to <2000 m depths. It
divides the Atlantic Ocean into a series of eastern and western basins (Fig. 1B). Locally, the deep circulation is governed by the
conservation of potential vorticity. For large-scale motions, in the interior of the ocean, potential vorticity reduces to f/h ¼ constant
(where f is the Coriolis parameter and h the water depth). From this expression we can predict which way a current will swing on
passing over bottom irregularities—equatorward over ridges and poleward over troughs in both hemispheres. In subpolar and polar
regions density variations with depth are small and as a result, the currents in the subpolar and polar regions are barotropic and
extend to great depth, with little vertical velocity shear (Fig. 2B).
The water formed at the Antarctic continent, the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), is the densest water mass in the Atlantic that
spreads long deep trenches and passages underneath the ACC and through the South Atlantic western basins toward the North
Atlantic (Fig. 1B, dashed lines), where it can usually be found near the seafloor even north of 40 N (actually, the real Antarctic water
masses are so dense that they can be followed only to about 4.5 S, while a mixture product, the Lower Circumpolar Deep Water
spreads to the Northern Hemisphere. However, for historical reasons the name Antarctic Bottom Water is used generally for this
water mass and is used here for consistency. The Walvis Ridge off south-west Africa limits the northward flow of AABW in the Cape
Basin and consequently the major northward flow of AABW takes place in the western basins. Although the Rio Grande Rise
between the Argentina Abyssal Plain and the Brazil Basin disturbs a smooth northward spreading of the AABW in the western basins,
the Vema and Hunter Channels within the Rio Grande Rise are deep and wide enough to allow a continuous northward flow. The
Romanche Fracture Zone at the equator allows part of the AABW to enter the eastern basins of the Atlantic, where the AABW spreads
poleward in both hemispheres.
The North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) is a mixture of different water masses that partly recirculates a few years within the North
Atlantic subpolar gyre before it enters the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) in the Labrador Sea (Fig. 1B, solid lines). At the
exit of the Labrador Sea at 53 N, the flow of the NADW has been monitored for the last 20 years by an array of moored CTD and
current measurements (Fig. 2B) which reveal several distinct cores of this flow. The deepest and fast NADW layer is dense water from
the Greenland Sea which overflows the Denmark Strait and is called Denmark Strait Overflow Water or lower NADW. South of the
Denmark Strait the lower NADW entrains surrounding water, which in part contains modified Antarctic Bottom Water. The middle
layer of NADW is a combination of overflow across the Iceland Faeroe Ridge and Faeroe Bank Channel and a light component of
modified Antarctic Bottom Water. The two upper layers of the NADW are formed by open-ocean convection in the Labrador and
Irminger Seas and are collectively called Labrador Sea Water or upper NADW. Close to the shore in the surface layer, the core of
Labrador Current carrying a mixture of cold Arctic outflow from the Baffin Bay and that of the West Greenland Current, can be seen.
Upon exiting the Labrador Sea, the DWBC/NADW flows along the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and Cape Hatteras. Mediterra-
nean Water entering over the Strait of Gibraltar spreads westward in the North Atlantic and contributes saline water mainly to the
upper NADW. The NADW continues southward in the western ocean basins with recirculation cells to the east. When the NADW
crosses the equator toward the South Atlantic part of the NADW flows eastward and then southward within the eastern basins.
However, the major portion of the NADW continues to flow southward at the Brazilian continental margin as DWBC. When the
NADW reaches the latitude of the ACC the NADW is mixed into and carried eastward with the ACC around the Antarctic continent.
Branches of the modified NADW, often referred to as Circumpolar Deep Water, move northward again into the Indian and Pacific
Oceans.
Once formed, the flow of the deep and intermediate waters is set by the equator-to-pole differences in ocean density and for that
reason is often called “thermohaline circulation.” It is sustained by upwelling and tidal mixing which provide energy to mix and uplift
the waters back to the upper ocean.

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

The wind-driven upper ocean flow of warm waters and the deeper thermohaline circulation described above are elements of the
so-called Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The AMOC is usually quantified as a zonally averaged (meridional)
volume transport. In addition to mass, the AMOC transports roughly half of the total amount of heat carried northward through
northern subtropics by the ocean (down the temperature gradient). The gyre circulation plays a major role in this poleward heat
transport as the Gulf Stream and its continuation carry warm (and salty) waters from the equatorial regions toward the subpolar
 Currents | Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean 209

Table 1 Major upper-ocean currents of the Atlantic Ocean and volume transport in Sverdrups (1 Sv ¼ 106 m3 s1)

Current name Abbreviation in Fig. 1 Transport in (Sv)

Subpolar gyre
East Greenland Current EGC 32 to bottom
West Greenland Current WGC 6 relative to 34.8 isohaline
Irminger Current IC 14 east of Cape Farewell
Labrador Current LC 35 to bottom
North Atlantic subtropical gyre
Gulf Stream GS 88–150
North Atlantic Current NAC 90 (west), 30 (east)
Azores Current AzC 10–12
Canary Current CaC 1–3
North Equatorial Current NEC 10
Florida Current FC 32  3 (at 27 N)
Equatorial currents
North Equatorial Countercurrent NECC 13 (23 W)
North Equatorial Undercurrent NEUC 10 (35 W)
Equatorial Undercurrent EUC 25 (9 W)–13 (5 E)
North Brazil Current NBC 30
North Brazil Undercurrent NBUC 25
South Equatorial Undercurrent SEUC 5–10
Angola Current AC 16 (13 S)
South Equatorial Countercurrent SECC 4 (9 S)
South Atlantic subtropical gyre
Brazil Current BC 4 (10 S)–76 (37 S)
South Atlantic Current SAC 15–30
Benguela Current BeC 28 (10 E)
South Equatorial Current SEC 16 (southern band)
Southern South Atlantic
Falkland (Malvinas) Current FAC up to 70
Antarctic Circumpolar Current ACC 110–150

regions where they can cool through interaction with the cold atmosphere and sink forming the North Atlantic Deep Water that
return south in the DWBC where it is mixed with ambient waters and eventually uplifted by mixing and upwelling. The air–sea heat
exchange over the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current modulates the weather conditions in north-western Europe. In the
Southern Hemisphere, the AMOC net heat transport is from the cool ACC to the warm tropics. The net meridional heat transport
across the equator is accomplished by warm upper ocean water and subpolar intermediate water from the Southern Hemisphere
moving northward in the upper 900 m mainly in the North Brazil Current, and cold North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) moving
southward between 1200 and 4000 m. A clear distinction has to be made between the cross-equatorial flow at the western boundary
and the meridional interhemispheric water mass exchange. The latter is the amount of transfer from the Southern to the Northern
Hemisphere in the upper ocean, and to a small degree in the Antarctic Bottom Water, compensated by the transfer from the
Northern to the Southern Hemisphere by the North Atlantic Deep Water. The cross-equatorial flow within the North Brazil Current
is much larger (Table 1), since part of this cross-equatorial flow originates from the zonal equatorial circulation, retroflects north of
the equator, and returns into the equatorial circulation system.

Variability of the Atlantic Current Systems

So far we described the gross time-average and large-scale circulation patterns of the Atlantic. In the past 10–15 years, advances in
observing technology and in numerical representation of the ocean in motion have disclosed ubiquitous variability of Atlantic
circulation on multiple space and time scales.

Short-Term and Meso-(and Smaller)-Scale Variability

The instability of the currents in the presence of large horizontal and vertical gradients leads to meandering and formation of
eddies, coherent vortical currents evolving on time scales from days to months, and concentrated on 10–100 km length scales
(“mesoscale,” depending on stratification and Coriolis parameter). Eddies can dominate ocean energetics and transport of
properties like heat, salt, carbon or ocean color as they can trap the local waters and carry them over large distances. Features like
fronts and filaments, sometimes smaller than 1 km, can dominate exchange processes locally. The growing array of surface drifters
210 Currents | Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean

and subsurface floats are particularly suited to study the turbulent flows. Here the instantaneous trajectories of drifters are shown
tracking the near-surface currents (Movie 1 in the online version at https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11291-6). The
most conspicuous are the Gulf Stream rings, persisting for several months and transporting warm water out, and cold water in the
subpolar gyre. They are believed to play an important role in the air–sea exchange, intensifying the hurricanes. In the Labrador Sea,
the eddies contribute to the supply of waters in and out of the open convection regions hence impacting the dense water formation.
In the retroflection zone of the North Brazil Current, eddies detach from the current and progress north-westward toward the
Caribbean. Large rings dominate also the inflow of Agulhas Current to the Atlantic, while Meddies and Sub-Surface Eddies populate
the deeper waters and contribute to the spreading of the NADW. At the equator, a counterpart of eddies are equatorial waves excited
by the wind stress variations and propagating in zonal-vertical direction carrying temperature signals and triggering mixing
processes, and contributing to the formation of deep equatorial jets.
The mesoscale variability visualized in movie are to be compared with a steady-state schematics of currents shown in Fig. 1A. The
schematic currents’ pathways, inferred with the core method from their characteristic water mass signatures, should be understood
in the time-averaged sense only as they do not represent the trajectories of individual water parcels and the water properties they
carry.

Long-Term and Large-Scale Variability

The current systems of the Atlantic exhibit several modes of internal variability arising due to coupling with the atmosphere. The
flows in subpolar gyre and DWBC are modulated on interannual-to-decadal time scales in a response to the North Atlantic
Oscillation, mediated by the air–sea exchange and attendant convection processes. The ocean integrates this variability and
responds by generating quasi-periodic oscillations of sea-surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic Ocean that have a period
of about 70 years, known as Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. In addition to the seasonal cycle, the Tropical Atlantic Variability
encompasses interannual variations arising from interaction of the equatorial zonal surface temperature gradient, ITCZ convection,
zonal wind and thermocline depth called Atlantic Nino, and interannual-to-decadal variability in the interhemispheric gradient in
tropical Atlantic SST known as Atlantic meridional mode. These variations alter convective regimes near the equator with
consequences for rainfall in Sahel and African countries along the Gulf of Guinea.
Paleo-oceanographic observations (sediment and ice cores) suggest that the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic has varied
on centennial and millennial time scales, and that these changes were linked to rapid climate fluctuations.

Future Aspects

Ocean research is always influenced by political and economic interests. The improvement in understanding of the surface currents
at the time of the voyages of discovery was caused by the need for good and safe sailing routes. The more detailed look at the
currents of the surface as well as the deep Atlantic were influenced by the interest in the resources of the sea for food, and the search
for economic sources. Nowadays, we have a strong evidence that the current systems in the Atlantic, quantified as Atlantic
Meridional Overturning Circulation, and the amount of mass, heat, salt and carbon they carry, play a crucial role in natural and
anthropogenic global climate variability (according to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change Assessment Report). The
oceans are estimated to have absorbed 90% of the global heat and this heat uptake is observed to penetrate deep into the Atlantic
and Southern Oceans, with consequences for the regional sea level rise and oceanic oxygen content worldwide, and hence for coastal
communities and fisheries. The technical advances in observational and modeling techniques have allowed the mapping of the
Atlantic Ocean currents’ time-mean state, and a first estimate of their variability on short-term to decadal timescales, but the
understanding of mechanisms governing this variability is still elementary, and its representation in the global ocean models used
for climate prediction is uncertain. Sustained observations are also necessary for assessing the possibility of future abrupt change in
the AMOC similar to those seen in paleoclimate records. Several observing systems have been at place for the last two decades. The
AMOC has been monitored by US–UK MOCHA–RAPID, a trans-Atlantic array of moored instruments at 26 N combined with ship-
borne, satellite and bottom pressure observations. The moored PIRATA array oversees the Atlantic variability at the equator. The
subpolar Atlantic is another key location because of the NADW formation processes and the temperature and salinity changes it
undergoes along the northern limb of the DBWC pathway. The aforementioned 53 N array, contributes to OSNAP, a multiplatform
observing system for NADW across the Irminger and Labrador Seas spearheading future sustained monitoring efforts; and an apt
monitoring system for the Gulf Stream variability is yet to come. Large international initiatives like GOOS and AtlanOS strive to
optimize and further develop these and other existing observational efforts for the Atlantic. Another priority is to improve the ocean
model representation of short time scale and mesoscale variability for better predictions of the future AMOC state. These efforts are
coordinated by the CLIVAR modeling community building upon the observations serving for validation of model results.
Despite the future focus on the Atlantic’s role in climate changes as well as interactive processes, and although the major
components of the near-surface circulation from ship drift observations have been known for >100 years, there is a continuous
need to investigate details of the Atlantic Ocean subsurface and abyssal circulation and its physical processes, which so far are
unrevealed.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11291-6.
 Currents | Current Systems in the Atlantic Ocean 211

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