The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolina) and moves toward Northwest Europe as the North Atlantic Current. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward-accelerating current off the east coast of North America. Around 40°0′N 30°0′W, it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current, recirculating off West Africa. The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the coastal areas of the East Coast of the United States from Florida to southeast Virginia (near 36°N latitude), and to a greater degree, the climate of Northwest Europe. A consensus exists that the climate of Northwest Europe is warmer than other areas of similar latitude at least partially because of the strong North Atlantic Current. It is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. Its presence has led to the development of strong cyclones of all types, both within the atmosphere and within the ocean.
History
European discovery of the Gulf Stream dates to the 1512 expedition of Juan Ponce de León, after which it became widely used by Spanish ships sailing from the Caribbean to Spain. A summary of Ponce de León's voyage log on April 22, 1513, noted, "A current such that, although they had great wind, they could not proceed forwards, but backwards and it seems that they were proceeding well; at the end, it was known that the current was more powerful than the wind." Regarding the events on that date, April 22, 1513, De León expedition's pilot, Antón de Alaminos, is mostly regarded as the main discoverer of the Gulf Stream. Benjamin Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. In 1768, while in England, Franklin heard a curious complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs: "Why did it take British packets several weeks longer to reach New York from England than it took an average American merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island, despite the merchant ships leaving from London and having to sail down the River Thames and then the length of the English Channel before they sailed across the Atlantic, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall?" Franklin asked his cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket Island whaling captain, for an answer. Folger explained that merchant ships routinely crossed the current—which was identified by whale behaviour, measurement of the water's temperature, and changes in the water's colour—while the mail packet captains ran against it. Franklin had Folger sketch the path of the current on a chart of the Atlantic and add notes on how to avoid the current when sailing from England to America. Franklin then forwarded the chart to Anthony Todd, secretary of the British Post Office. Franklin's Gulf Stream chart was printed in 1769 in London, but it was mostly ignored by British sea captains. A copy of the chart was printed in Paris circa 1770–1773, and a third version was published by Franklin in Philadelphia in 1786. Since the mid-20th century, advances in oceanographic observation have greatly improved scientific understanding of the Gulf Stream. Direct measurements of its velocity and temperature began with research vessels and moored current meters in the 1950s and 1960s. From the late 1970s onward, satellite remote sensing—particularly through sea-surface temperature (SST) imagery, altimetry, and ocean color sensors—allowed scientists to map the position and variability of the current in near-real time. The launch of NASA’s TOPEX/Poseidon mission in 1992 and its successors provided continuous data on sea-surface height, which is closely related to ocean circulation strength. In addition, the deployment of drifting buoys and the global Argo float network has enabled regular subsurface temperature and salinity profiling, offering a three-dimensional view of the Gulf Stream’s structure and its role within the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.
Properties The Gulf Stream proper is a western-intensified current, driven largely by wind stress. In 1958, oceanographer Henry Stommel noted, "very little water from the Gulf of Mexico is actually in the stream". The North Atlantic Current, in contrast, is largely driven by thermohaline circulation. Its carrying warm water northeast across the Atlantic makes Western Europe and especially Northern Europe warmer and milder than it otherwise would be. The specific location of the Gulf Stream changes seasonally, being closer to the coast of North America in the summer and further away in the winter.
Formation and behaviour
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