Apr -- July: Blooms continue to develop into a Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (extends northwestward by the North Brazil Current and North
Equatorial Current, and eastward to the West Africa coast by the North Equatorial Counter Current)
Scientists can use those measurements to understand with unprecedented resolution what happens to the
equatorial current system just west of the Galapagos Islands during an El Nino.
There it might catch the North
Equatorial Current heading west.
The experiment studies the North
Equatorial Current, a westward flowing body of water east of the Philippines, which divides the Philippine current into the Kuroshio Current (northward) and the Mindanao Current (southward).
In the Pacific, warm waters along the South American coast are transported westward by the South
Equatorial Current. This allows the cold current and upwelling to produce the cold coastal waters.
(27.) Ships traversing the doldrums between the North and South Atlantic gyre had to contend with the influence of the Guinea Current, North
Equatorial Current, Equatorial Counter Current, South
Equatorial Current and Brazil Current.
In the Indian Ocean, anomalously northwesterly winds east of Madagascar in 2015 resulted in anomalous eastward flow (a diminished westward South
Equatorial Current), consistent with slightly low sea level and OHC anomalies east of Madagascar, coupled with much higher sea level and OHC anomalies to the north.
On the east side, nearly halfway across the Atlantic, is the southerly flowing Canary Current; and on its south side, about level with southern Florida, is the westerly flowing North Atlantic
Equatorial Current. All four currents deposit masses of sargassum seaweed, which covers much of the Sargasso Sea's surface.
There are particularly large differences in regions in the North Pacific centered on 10[degrees]N and 40[degrees]N, which are relevant to intensification of the North
Equatorial Current and reduction of the Kuroshio extension, as well as in some local regions around the Drake Passage and in the northern North Atlantic.
Adjacent waters at either side of the upwelling area show warm waters of ~29[degrees]C (yellow tones), which can be associated with the
equatorial current. These features are also evident when observing the average profile of SST, corresponding to transect for 'normal' winters 1996, 1998 and 1999 (Figure 3a), whereas that for winter 1997 was rather different.