Next message: Peter Fogg: "Re: EAC"
Peter you wrote:
"Going south its the opposite story. The current tends to be strongest out
along the edge of the continental shelf, at about 200 metres of depth, the
old 100 fathom line. Just to round off my personal evidence for the EAC's
unpredictability, once we were sailing south for about 600 nm along the
coast, and sat out there, about 10 nm from shore, in the hope of the current
wafting us home, as there was little wind. Out of luck, the current seemed
to have gone to the same place as the wind, almost entirely missing."
The EAC, the Kuroshio, the Gulf Stream, the Brazil, and the Agulhas currents
are known to oceanographers as the "western boundary currents". They all
have similar properties: fast, narrow, riding the the edge of the continental
shelf, and prone to spawn large, powerful eddies after they break away from the
coast.
There is a real revolution going on in the prediction and analysis of ocean
currents thanks to real-time satellite altimetry and supercomputer analysis.
If you haven't seen it, go here:
http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/global_nlom32/skill.html
Start with the "Global" coverage and then click on "Speed Nowcast" or "Speed
Forecast". Download the "Last 12 Months" mpeg if you want to see it come
alive. It's amazing --makes the Earth look like Jupiter... You can also get
detailed analysis of the EAC under the Pacific coverage.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
