North Equatorial Current

North Equatorial Current

[′nȯrth ‚ē·kwə′tȯr·ē·əl ′kə·rənt]

(oceanography)

Westward ocean currents driven by the northeast trade winds blowing over tropical oceans of the Northern Hemisphere. Also known as Equatorial Current.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

North Equatorial Current

 

(in Russian, North Equatorial Currents), a current of the surface waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans between 3–10° and 30° N. lat. caused by steady northeasterly trade winds, which give it great stability. The current flows from east to west. The average velocity is 0.5 m/sec; sometimes the velocity is as high as 1 m/sec. The current is several dozen meters deep and has a flow rate of 30 million to 50 million cu m per sec. It is the principal source of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean and the Kuroshio Current in the Pacific.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.