Eddies - Mesoscale Ocean Eddies

Mesoscale Ocean Eddies

Eddies are common in the ocean, and range in diameter from centimeters, to hundreds of kilometers. The smallest scale eddies may last for a matter of seconds, while the larger features may persist for months to years. Those eddies which are between about 10 and 500 km in diameter, and persist for periods of days to months are commonly referred to in oceanography as mesoscale eddies.

A mesoscale eddy may be formed when an ocean current, such as the Gulf Stream, develops an instability. This instability grows, causing the current to meander, and eventually an eddy is pinched off from the meander (in much the same way as a meandering river forms an ox-bow lake). These types of mesoscale eddies have been observed in many of major ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream, the Agulhas Current, the Kuroshio Current, and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, amongst others.

Mesoscale ocean eddies are characterized by currents which flow in a roughly circular motion around the center of the eddy. The sense of rotation of these currents may either be cyclonic or anticyclonic. Oceanic eddies are also usually made of water masses that are different to those outside of the eddy. That is, the water within an eddy usually has different temperature and salinity characteristics to the water outside of the eddy. There is a direct link between the water mass properties of an eddy and its rotation. Warm eddies rotate anti-cyclonically, while cold eddies rotate cyclonically.

Because eddies may have a vigorous circulation associated with them, they are of concern to naval and commercial operations at sea. Further, because eddies transport anomalously warm or cold water as they move, they have an important influence on heat transport in certain parts of the ocean.