Abstract
Three trans-oceanic XBT sections (∼5000 km in length) and a shorter one (∼2500 km in length) were taken in the central North Atlantic in 1974 to study the distribution of the horizontal scales and amplitudes of mesoscale variability. Few features of the MODE scale (∼400 km wavelength) were observed; the most dominant features had space scales of 1000–2000 km and amplitudes of 50–100 m.