Eddies and meanders

A snapshot of the surface ocean circulation off the west coast of Norway, from the operational ocean model at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Shown here is a subregion of a 4 km model that is nested into a 20 km model for the Norwegian Sea and adjacent regions. This snapshot is for June 8, but the presence of meanders and eddies is always a dominant feature of the ocean circulation in this region.