Current velocities of the Gulf Stream
Last updated automagically: Wednesday 8 February 2012 21:33:07 CET
- Since 21 December 2004 the velocity maps show the absolute in stead
of relative velocities. This means that the velocities now include the
mean Gulf Stream current, based on the CMDT-RIO04
dynamic topography solution by Rio and Hernandez.
- Starting on 10 January 2005 data from four altimeter satellites (Envisat, Jason-1, TOPEX/Poseidon, GFO) are included in the generations of the Gulf Stream velocity maps.
At the same time the area was extended 10 degrees towards the east and results of the
last four weeks are presented.
All previous maps are reprocessed with the data of all four altimeters
inside the new extended region.
- The number of altimeter satellites was reduced to three after the failure of TOPEX/Poseidon on 9 October 2005. Since the demise of GFO in April 2008 and the launch of Jason-2 in June 2008, the number of altimeters included in the generation of these maps still stands at three.
Current status of the Gulf Stream
Relative Gulf Stream velocity fields are derived from near-realtime data from the
radar altimeters of the satellites
Envisat,
Jason-1, and
Jason-2.
This page presents four maps of current velocities of the Gulf
Stream in the vicinity of the East coast of North-America.
Velocities are represented in meters per second. To get the approximate
velocity in knots you have to multiply by 2 (1.9438445 to be precise).
The maps represent the situations on four different days, each
separated by one week from the next.
Figure 1. Gulf Stream velocities one week ago: Wednesday 1 February 2012
Figure 2. Gulf Stream velocities two weeks ago: Wednesday 25 January 2012
Figure 3. Gulf Stream velocities three weeks ago: Wednesday 18 January 2012
Figure 4. Gulf Stream velocities four weeks ago: Wednesday 11 January 2012
Additional resources
- These maps are updated daily. An archive of the images is here.
- For more information about the images, follow this link.
- Animations of the Gulf Stream velocities are here.
- Some related links about projects using this information or providing
alternative near real-time Gulfstream velocity solutions.
