Arnault Sabine. (1987). Tropical Atlantic geostrophic currents and ship drifts. Journal of Geophysical Research, 92 (C5), p. 5076-5088. ISSN 0148-0227.
Titre du document
Tropical Atlantic geostrophic currents and ship drifts
Année de publication
1987
Type de document
Article
Auteurs
Arnault Sabine
Source
Journal of Geophysical Research, 1987,
92 (C5), p. 5076-5088 ISSN 0148-0227
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. (D'après résumé d'auteur)
