WILL DEEP SUBTROPICAL RING STORM PHYSALIA CROSS THE MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE AND REACH AMERICA

A short research cruise was planned to trace the movement of a discret e body of water in the subtropical eastern North Atlantic Ocean. A sub tropical ring or deep eddy called STORM was found budding off the Subt ropical Front (STF) south-west of the Azores. A physical, chemical and biological survey to depths of 3 . 5 km was made of this 400 km scale body of water which was spinning cyclonically (anticlockwise). The az imuthal transport or the amount of water swirling in the eddy was 45 S v. Storm was 'hooked' with ten drogued Argos buoys and a further five subsurface Alace floats were deployed. Storm is moving westward at sim ilar to 3 km a day and is expected to reach the Mid Atlantic Ridge in rather less than a year unless it is destroyed by typography or reabso rbed into the Azores Current. With current technology, Storm's evoluti on and westward progress can be observed and analysed remotely, at a d istance of similar to 3000 km in the laboratory. Realtime position dat a means that future sea surveys can be planned.