Abstract
Current mean on long moorings placed in the Gulf Stream near 59°W during 1983–84 experienced time-varying vertical displacements of many hundreds of meters. As an aid to interpreting the resulting velocity and temperature signals, a parametric model of Gulf Stream thermal structure was developed on the basis of a detailed survey of the area. The model translates moored measurements of temperature and pressure to a vertical and cross-stream position in a coordinate system associated with the instantaneous Gulf Stream. Temperature as a function of cross-stream position and pressure, as measured in the survey, is reproduced to within about 0.3°C root-mean-square residual for pressures between 200 and 1500 dbar and temperatures between 4.5° and 19°C using a simple analytical model with a limited number of empirically determined parameters. The model spans a cross-stream range of approximately 150 km. This construct provides a framework for analyzing the measured data and also provides a realistic local representation of the Gulf Stream.
