Exploring the Gulf Stream

Scientists at WHOI have been exploring the Gulf Stream and its connections to global circulation and climate patterns for decades. Physical oceanographer Arthur “Rocky” Miller, shown here in 1960, came to WHOI in 1946 and was among the first to study the massive current and its effects on coastal regions. In 2011, the institution celebrated the tenth anniversary of “Line W,” an array of moorings across the Gulf Stream that gather data on salinity, temperature, and current speed and direction at different depths. Recently, scientists working as part of the multi-institution Ocean Observatories Initiative showed that in late 2011 a small current branched from the Gulf Stream and veered onto the continental shelf near New England—a pattern that, if sustained, could seriously affect fisheries in the region.(Photo by Jan Hahn, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)