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’Temperature version’ of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

’Temperature version’ of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents (Temperature)

This is a visualization of ocean currents around the world. NASA’s ocean model, Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO), is used to visualize the currents. The ECCO ocean circulation model incorporates observations from spacecraft, buoys, and other in situ measurements to keep the model accurate. ECCO is a joint project between NASA/JPL, MIT, and UT Austin. The model output used here is from ECCO-2 and covers the years 2021-2023.

The colors in the visualization represent the temperature of the water, ranging from blue to purple to yellow in degrees Celsius from 0 to 25 (32 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit).

The visualization starts from a global rotating view before slowing down to see the Western Boundary Current along the western edge of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Australia, and Asia. We zoom in to show the Kuroshio Current off the coast of Japan. It has a temperature range of 20 to 25 °C (68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit).

We then zoom out and move over the Indian Ocean and then around to the southern tip of Africa. The exchange of warm water from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic occurs here. The Agulhas Current overshoots the African continent, moving into the South Atlantic. Then retroflects back to the Indian Ocean. At the retroflection, shedding of warm (20 to 25 °C) and salty rings happens. The eddies detached from the current have a lifetime of more than 2 years traveling across the south Atlantic ocean. These eddies are referred to as Agulhas Rings.

Another Western Boundary Current, called the Gulf Stream comes into view along the east coast of North America. The Gulf Stream forms at the Florida Straits Zooming into the Gulf Stream, we can see that the warm surface water (>25°C/>77F) moves poleward. The Gulf Stream is generally the warmest and saltiest western boundary current. There’s a return current underneath at depth below 500m moving southward carrying cold waters from the pole.

The loop currents in the Gulf of Mexico are very large eddies persisting in the Gulf. They bring the warm and highly saline Caribbean water into the Gulf.

Models like ECCO-2 help scientists to understand the characteristics of these currents better and ultimately understand how heat is transported globally in the Ocean.

Check out the 'beauty shot version' of the visualization.

View additional videos and still images at NASA SVS.