Celtic and Armorican slope and shelf residual currents

Current meter data collected over the last 20 years are presented and used to describe the residual currents on the Celtic and Armorican slope and shelf regions. On the slopes, a poleward current of about 6cm s⁻¹ exists at the 500m depth contour. At mid depths, these currents are directed onslope, whereas near the bottom the flow in markedly downslope, reaching mean speeds of about 15cm s⁻¹ near 6°40′W. The downslope currents are thought to be largely tidally induced and balanced by Stokes transports. The total slope transport near 48°N is about 4Sv. On the upper slopes (<1000m depth) the transport increases poleward. On the outer Celtic shelf, a weak (2 cm s⁻¹) counter-current flowing southeastwards was observed. On the Armorican shelf, the residual flow is again nothwestwards and this coastal flow appears to continue northwards across the mouth of the English Chanel and past the Isles of Scilly with typical mean upper layer speeds of about 2cm s⁻¹. Southwest of Ireland the flow is again northwesterly. Numerical model simulations show that the eastern slope boundary current of the NE Atlantic can be driven by realistic distributions of seawater density. The simulations also show only a small wind driven barotropic response on the Celtic and Armorican shelf region and that a component of the residual shelf flows, like the slope current, may be driven by pressure distributions arising from regional differences in the distribution of seawater density, or from non local wind stress.