fied water to split up into narrow streams of higher velocity 

 rather than to form a broader and weaker band of flow. This 

 "streakiness" of ocean currents is not only present within the 

 swift Gulf Stream and Kuro Shio, but also in other branches of 

 the circulation along the eastern and western boundaries of the 

 oceans as well as in mid-ocean regions, although the individual 

 "streaks" are much weaker. At present, no satisfactory explanation 

 for such details in the flow pattern of ocean currents has been 

 given. 



The general circulations in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean 

 are asymmetrical with respect to the equator, and this asymmetry 

 is related to the asymmetry of the general atmospheric circulation. 

 As a consequence of this a special equatorial current system is 

 observed, which from the dynamical point of view needs some further 

 consideration. Common to the oceans, including the Indian Ocean, 

 is the fact that the equatorial currents are relatively strong 

 compared with the currents of the subpolar gyre. This fact, as 

 well as the east-west asymmetries in the North Atlantic, in the 

 North Pacific and partly in the Indian Ocean cannot be explained 

 in a simple way by the wind field itself. For example, the Gulf 

 Stream and Brazil Current are almost equivalent branches of the 

 subtropical gyre on the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, yet the 

 Gulf Stream transports about ten times as much as the Brazil Cur- 

 rent, and the gross features of the equivalent circulation systems 

 on both hemispheres show striking differences. 



The present report is concerned with some notes on the general 

 or "gross" features of the wind driven circulation. Although no 



