Currents

Ocean currents in the Caribbean region are influenced by wind, tides, mesoscale eddies, complex bathymetry and buoyancy forcing. These factors combine to produce complex current fields at multiple space and time scales. The Currents section at CarICOOS is devoted to gaining a better understanding of the currents in the Caribbean region and making available data products to keep the public informed on the latest conditions.
There are no operational current measuring instruments installed in the region at the present time. We present here the surface current fields as obtained from the NOAA Real Time Ocean Forecast System (RTOFS). Data has been re-gridded and interpolated for the CarICOOS domain. Note that due to limited spatial resolution, RTOFS does not capture coastal boundary layer processes such as tidal jets, flow separation and topographic vortex shedding. It is better suited for understanding mesoscale processes in the open ocean, and should not be used to forecast ocean currents near the coast.

In addition to the RTOFS model, we here present two satellite-based products. The CCAR product (courtesy of the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research) provides "geostrophic" currents based on satellite altimetry. Wind-driven and tidal components are NOT considered in this product. The OSCAR product (Ocean Surface Current Analysis- Real Time, courtesy of the NOAA PMEL laboratories) considers wind forcing in addition to the satellite altimetry. For more information regarding OSCAR, see http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/119596.pdf.