Observations of an intense anticyclonic warm eddy in the Newfoundland Basin

An intense anticyclonic warm eddy was sampled in February 1997 in the Newfo undland Basin. Its presence, detected during a hydrographic survey, was fur ther corroborated through ERS/TOPEX sea surface height anomaly and satellit e tracked drifters. This 120 km wide eddy was very homogeneous in temperatu re and salinity down to 800 m and its transport (15-1800 dbar) reached 27 S v. Its location, 49 degreesN 40 degreesW, in the warm and saline waters of the Northwest Corner, the northernmost position reached by tile North Atlan tic Current, is clearly exceptional. Although intense anticyclonic eddies h ave previously been observed with satellite tracked buoys and RAFOS floats, this is the first eddy (to our knowledge) ever documented at such a high l atitude in the North Atlantic Current system. Its formation is discussed in term of thermohaline processes.