Mean position and variability of the sea surface temperature front east of the grand banks

Abstract

Three years of weekly sea surface temperature maps were analysed to determine the mean position and standard deviation of the front separating the Mixed Water from the North Atlantic Current water to the east of the Grand Banks between 40–50°N and 40–50°W. The front was found to lie along the path of the North Atlantic Current proposed by Dietrich et al. (1975) and to have a standard deviation ranging from 100 to 200 km. The dominant mode of movement at periods of 6 months and longer consisted of a nearly uniform translation. The trajectories of satellite‐tracked drifting buoys were analysed to create a map of the eddy kinetic energy for the region. The high energy ridge of the map generally corresponded to the mean position of the sea surface temperature front.