Subpolar Gyre

subpolar gyre, an area of cyclonic ocean circulation that sits beneath a persistent region of low atmospheric pressure. In contrast to subtropical gyres, the movement of ocean water within the Ekman layer of subpolar gyres forces upwelling and surface water divergence.

In the North Atlantic the subpolar gyre consists of the North Atlantic Current at its equatorward side and the Norwegian Current that carries relatively warm water northward along the coast of Norway. The heat released from the Norwegian Current into the atmosphere maintains a moderate climate in northern Europe. Along the east coast of Greenland is the southward-flowing cold East Greenland Current. It loops around the southern tip of Greenland and continues flowing into the Labrador Sea. The southward flow that continues off the coast of Canada is called the Labrador Current. This current separates for the most part from the coast near Newfoundland to complete the subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic. Some of the cold water of the Labrador Current, however, extends farther south.

In the North Pacific the subpolar gyre is composed of the northward-flowing Alaska Current, the Aleutian Current (also known as the Subarctic Current), and the southward-flowing cold Oyashio Current. The North Pacific Current forms the separation between the subpolar and subtropical gyres of the North Pacific.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the subpolar gyres are less defined. Large cyclonic flowing gyres lie poleward of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and can be considered counterparts to the Northern Hemispheric subpolar gyres. The best-formed is the Weddell Gyre of the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic coastal current flows toward the west. The northward-flowing current off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula carries cold Antarctic coastal water into the circumpolar belt. Another cyclonic gyre occurs north of the Ross Sea.