COMPUTATIONS OF THE EDDY HEAT AND DENSITY 

 TRANSPORTS ACROSS THE GULF STREAM 

 by 

 Abraham H. Oort 



ABSTRACT 



Data of the current velocity, temperature and salinity 

 of the Gulf Stream, collected during 200 crossings of the current 

 in cruises off Onslow Bay, Jacksonville (30°N) and Cape Hatteras, 

 are used to compute the eddy fluxes of heat and density across the 

 mean current. In each cruise an eddy transport of heat is observed, 

 which is directed from the colder coastal water to the Sargasso Sea 

 in the surface layers. The meanders in the stream appear to increase 

 the thermal contrast across the so called Gulf Stream front and thus 

 violate the ordinary diffusion laws by not transporting heat from the 

 ,warm to the cold source. The transport of density across the stream is, 

 in general, towards the shore, reflecting mostly the influence of 

 the temperature on the density, 



Webster (1961b) has shown in an earlier study that there 

 is a surface flow of kinetic energy and momentum from the meanders 

 to the mean flow of the Gulf Stream, Since the meanders of the scale 



