remote sensing of extra-tropical cyclones and their interaction with the ocean
The Eastern Central North Atlantic
The Eastern Central North Atlantic (EACNA) is that stretch of the North Atlantic east of the Mid-Atlantic ridge and between the subtropical and subpolar North Atlantic. Although the region hasn't been often named as EACNA, except in a couple of marine geology papers, I felt I had to put a name on it so that I could refer to it consistently. It is a rather quiet part of the North Atlantic, contrary to its western counterpart, where the mighty Gulf Stream rules. Some of its oceanographic features of interest are eastward flows originating in the WECNA (yes, that's the Western Central North Atlantic - I just named it so...), e.g the Azores Current or the southeastward drift of the North Atlantic Current. On the other hand, it has its attractions, chief among which is, in my opinion, the Mediterranean Underflow, which starts as the Mediterranean Outflow in the Strait of Gibraltar and spreads Mediterranean Water in the eastern North Atlantic.
The Azores Current
The Azores Current (AzC) is a permanent feature of the circulation in the Eastern Central North Atlantic. It runs West to East approximately 300 km south of the Azores islands (hence the name) and it more or less coincides with the boundary of the subtropical gyre. Figure 1 is a colormap of the average velocity in the eastern North Atlantic obtained from drifter buoys released under the Surface Velocity Program (aka Global Drifter Program). The AzC appears in the map as the high velocity (in yellow) strip between 33 degrees and 36 degrees north.
Figure 1. Average surface velocity from drifter buoys of the Surface Velocity Program.
The current runs all the way east to the Gulf of Cadiz, but its speed decreases eastward, from above 10 cm/s west of 30°W to between 5 and 10 cm/s when reaching the Gulf of Cadiz.
