EVIDENCE FOR LARGE-SCALE EDDY-DRIVEN GYRES IN THE NORTH-ATLANTIC

Analysis of a recent climatological database for the North Atlantic ha s detailed an extensive large-scale recirculation system in the interm ediate waters of the North Atlantic basin. The pressure fields that de fine this recirculation, coupled with the potential vorticity fields a ssociated with the recirculating flow, provide observational evidence for basin-scale eddy-driven flow in the global ocean. The recirculatio ns are intimately tied to the waters carried southward by the Deep Wes tern Boundary Current and are therefore likely to affect the distribut ion of climatic anomalies in the North Atlantic.