608 



The Tropospheric Circulation 



85° VV ^0° 75° 70° 



85° W 



Fig. 281. Dynamic topography of the physical sea surface (relative to that of the 1200 



decibar surface) for the Caribian Sea and the Cayman Sea. (Lines of equal dynamic anomaly 



drawn with an interval of 005 dyn m.) 



is in the Yucatan Channel, profile II north of Cuba, profile XII at the narrowest 

 part of the Florida Strait, profile IV at the exit from the Florida Strait just before the 

 junction with the Antilles Current, profile V at Cape Hatteras and profile VI from the 

 Newfoundland Banks in southward direction. The temperature profiles show that the 

 Gulf Stream is by no means a deep-reaching current of high temperature. It differs 

 only little in the thermal structure from the neighbouring Sargasso Sea. The steep 

 oblique slope of the isothermals and isohalines is characteristic and the narrower the 

 section the more rises the lower, cold and weakly saline water at the left-hand boundary. 

 This baroclinic mass distribution is connected with the current velocity and direction 

 and is more pronounced the stronger the flow. It is thus more prominent in the narrow 

 sections to the south. Profile V shows the Gulf Stream beyond the junction of the 

 Florida Current and the Antilles Current where it has its greatest vertical thickness, 

 about 1000 m, and has the considerable core width of about 50-70 km. Its left-hand 



