Figure 1
19-year average meridional flow at 30°N (Wunsch and Heimbach, 2013) in the Atlantic. The flow field was computed using a dynamically consistent, energy, mass, etc. conserving model, driven by known atmospheric forcing, and adjusted to be consistent with the great majority of observed data. Model time-step is about 1 hour. The eddy field was parameterized and thus is not visually apparent. As expected, the averaged result shows the known dominant elements of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation including an intense Gulf Stream, a Deep Western Boundary Current, an interior Sverdrup-like return flow, eastern boundary currents and less well-documented interior flows over the entire water column associated in large part with the topography. Structures and volume transports vary considerably with latitude, and also temporally—as suppressed by averaging. Reproduced from Wunsch and Heimbach, 2013.