Tropical Atlantic Geostrophic Currents and Ship Drifts
Abstract
Historical ship drifts and geostrophic surface currents obtained from hydrographic data are compared in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The major components of the current system (North Equatorial Current, North Equatorial Countercurrent, South Equatorial Current) are clearly depicted by the two data sets. The main difference between the two fields is the weakness of the geostrophic currents except in the near‐equatorial band, where on the contrary, they are much larger than the ship drifts. The amplitudes of the annual signals differ, but the phases are in rather good agreement. The uncertainty concerning the ship drift data, and the limitation of the geostrophic assumption, can explain a part of the differences encountered in this study. A much better comparison is obtained if we add to the geostrophic current ug an Ekman drift current ue computed from the climatological wind stress and a mean constant vertical viscosity value. Then the total velocity u = ug + ue corresponds very closely in phase and amplitude to the ship drift velocity, except at the equator.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
Irradiance Measurements in the Upper Ocean
Paulson, C. A., & Simpson, J. J. (1977) · Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1977)007 · Cited by 879 · see citing works
Intensive measurements of turbulence and shear in the equatorial undercurrent
Gregg, M. C., Peters, H., Wesson, J. C., Oakey, N. S., & Shay, T. J. (1985) · Nature · doi:10.1038/318140a0 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Legeckis, R. V. (1979) · Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1979)009 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Seasonal variability of the surface dynamic topography in the tropical Atlantic Ocean
Merle, J., & Arnault, S. (1985) · Journal of Marine Research · doi:10.1357/002224085788438667 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
The Baroclinic Instability of the Open Ocean
Robinson, A. R., & McWilliams, J. C. (1974) · Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1974)004 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Observations of eastward currents in the tropical South Atlantic Ocean: 1978–1980
Molinari, R. L. (1982) · Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · doi:10.1029/jc087ic12p09707 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Microstructure and Intrusions in the California Current
Gregg, M. C. (1975) · Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1975)005 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Coastal Upwelling on a β-Plane
Hurlburt, H. E., & Thompson, J. D. (1973) · Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1973)003 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Temperature and salinity microstructure in the Pacific equatorial undercurrent
Gregg, M. C. (1976) · Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · doi:10.1029/jc081i006p01180 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
The Atlantic Equatorial Undercurrent
Metcalf, W. G., Voorhis, A. D., & Stalcup, M. C. (1962) · Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · doi:10.1029/jz067i006p02499 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
MICROSTRUCTURE MEASUREMENTS IN THE ATLANTIC EQUATORIAL UNDERCURRENT DURING GATE
Crawford, W. R., & Osborn, T. R. (1980) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-1-4832-8366-1.50033-9 · Cited by 36
Seasonal Variability of Subsurface Thermal Structure in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean
Merle, J. (1983) · Elsevier oceanography series · doi:10.1016/s0422-9894(08)70626-3 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Reverdin, G., & McPhaden, M. J. (1986) · Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · doi:10.1029/jc091ic05p06569 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Evidence of a South Equatorial Counter-current in the Atlantic Ocean in July 1963
Reid, J. L. (1964) · Nature · doi:10.1038/203182a0 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
VELOCITY OBSERVATIONS IN THE EQUATORIAL THERMOCLINE DURING GATE
Weisberg, R. H., Miller, L., Horigan, A. M., et al. (1980) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-1-4832-8366-1.50030-3 · Cited by 23
Near equatorial eddies in the North Atlantic
Bruce, J. G., & Kerling, J. L. (1984) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/gl011i008p00779 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Drifting buoy trajectories in the Atlantic North Equatorial Countercurrent during 1983
Richardson, P. L. (1984) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/gl011i008p00745 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Hisard, P., & Hénin, C. (1984) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/gl011i008p00761 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Halpern, D. (1979) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-3518-4_2 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 11
- Bubnov V. A., 1977, Investigation of the large scale current structure in the tropical Atlantic Ocean along 23*deg;30′W, Oceanology, 17, 631
- Crawford W. R., 1979, Energetics of the Atlantic equatorial currents, Deep Sea Res., 26, 309
- Defant A., 1941, Quantitative Untersuchungen zur Statik und Dynamik des Atlantischen Ozeans, Meteor Exped., 6, 190
- 10.1175/1520-0485(1983)013<1093:NMWSOT>2.0.CO;2 · DOI
- Hisard P., 1973, Variations saisonnierès à l'équateur dans le Golfe de Guinée, Cah. ORSTOM, Ser. Oceanogr., 12, 349
- 10.1175/1520-0485(1983)013<2070:SVOTST>2.0.CO;2 · DOI
- Lemasson L., 1973, Circulation dans le Golfe de Guinée, Etude de la région d'origine du sous courant ivoirien, Cah. ORSTOM, Ser. Oceanogr., 11, 303
- Neumann G., 1968, Ocean Currents
- Pond S., 1978, Introductory Dynamic Oceanography
- Schumacher A., 1940, Monatskarten der Oberflachenstromungen im Nordatlantischen Ozean (5°S‐50°N), Ann. Hydrogr. Mar. Meteorol., 68, 109
- Schumacher A., 1943, Monatskarten der Oberflachenstromungen im aquatorialen und sudlichen Atlantischen Ozean, Ann. Hydrogr. Mar. Meteorol., 71, 209
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Near-surface Circulation in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean
Lumpkin, R., & Garzoli, S. L. (2005) · Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers · doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2004.09.001 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
Illig, S., Dewitte, B., Ayoub, N., du Penhoat, Y., Reverdin, G., De Mey, P., Bonjean, F., & Lagerloef, G. S. E. (2004) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · doi:10.1029/2003jc001771 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Stampar, S. N., Maronna, M. M., Vermeij, M. J. A., Silveira, F. L. D., & Morandini, A. C. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041091 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Relationship between the Guinea Current and the Coastal Upwelling in Northern of Gulf of Guinea
Djakouré, S., Konaté, Y., Koné, V., Bosson, K., Koné, M., & Kouadio, K. Y. (2024) · Open Journal of Marine Science · doi:10.4236/ojms.2024.144004 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 1987-05-15
- Volume
- 92
- Issue
- C5
- Pages
- 5076-5088
- ISSN
- 0148-0227 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2144914834
- Semantic Scholar
- 2bb08687171a1184664607ed83532575be392cd3
- Cited by
- 95
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 3.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Ocean Waves and Remote Sensing
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
- Keywords
- tropical Atlantic, geostrophic currents, ship drift, North Equatorial Current, North Equatorial Countercurrent, South Equatorial Current, Ekman drift, wind stress, vertical viscosity, equatorial currents, seasonal variation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
