The North Atlantic Current (North Atlantic Drift and the North Atlantic Sea Movement) is a powerful warm ocean current that continues the Gulf Stream northeast. West of Ireland it splits in two. One branch (the Canary Current) goes south while the other continues north along the coast of northwestern Europe where it has a considerable warming influence on the climate. Other branches include the Irminger Current and the Norwegian Current. Driven by the global thermohaline circulation (THC), the North Atlantic Current is also often considered 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. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2639x1406, 582 KB) Ocean Currents and Sea Ice from Atlas of World Maps. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2639x1406, 582 KB) Ocean Currents and Sea Ice from Atlas of World Maps. ... Ocean currents (1911) Ocean currents (1943) An ocean current is any more or less continuous, directed movement of ocean water that flows in one of the Earths oceans. ... For the album by Ocean Colour Scene, see North Atlantic Drift (album) The Gulf Stream is orange and yellow in this representation of water temperatures of the Atlantic. ... The Canary Current branches south from the North Atlantic Current and flows toward the South West about as far as Senegal where it turns West. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... The Irminger Current is a north Atlantic ocean current setting westward off the southwest coast of Iceland. ... The Norwegian Current is warm water current that north-easterly along the Atlantic coast of Norway. ... A simplified summary of the path of the Thermohaline Circulation. ... For the album by Ocean Colour Scene, see North Atlantic Drift (album) The Gulf Stream is orange and yellow in this representation of water temperatures of the Atlantic. ...
Climate change, especially global warming, may have a significant effect on the current. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 450,000 years For current global climate change, see Global warming. ... Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earths near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. ... Shutdown or slowdown of the thermohaline circulation is a possible effect of global warming. ...
The N. Atlantic drift is the broad, northward flow of surface waters that replaces the sinking waters in the N. Atlantic polar seas.
Because of the rapid advection of the NorthAtlantic gyre, the temperature of the surface waters of the NADC almost always exceeds that of both surrounding waters and the overlying atmosphere (Rossby, 1996).
Several authors define the region that is occupied by the lethargic NADC as bounded by the cool Irminger current to its west, while its southern and eastern border is weakly constrained by the extension of the NorthAtlanticCurrent that bends northeastward, flanking the western edge of the Rockall Plateau.
Other transport estimates for the NAC include 35 Sv (ref leval 1900 m) (Krause et al., 1987); In his figure 15 the Gulf Stream is located at 40°N 50°W and the Slope Water current at 41°N 50°W. Fuglister (1963) considered this to be a typical situation and found a westerly countercurrent separating the two.
Worthington had shown the NAC as part of a separate Northern gyre, however subsequent work later revealed that this hypothesis was incorrect and that the NorthAtlanticCurrent was indeed derived from the Gulf Stream.
The NorthAtlanticCurrent is generally thought of as the end of the Gulf Stream, however it goes on to feed some of the major subarctic currents completing the poleward transport of tropical waters.
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