Gulf Stream ADCPs 2026

The plan for this project is to deploy a set of five bottom-mounted ADCPs across the Gulf Stream for a full year. We plan to directly measure the Gulf Stream volume transport and its variability along the US Southeast Coast. Previous attempts to measure the Gulf Stream have focused on the Florida Straits where the current is confined and thus easier to measure. However the Florida Current joins with the Antilles Current along the Northeast Florida shelf, creating the beginnings of the Gulf Stream proper. It is here where we plan to deploy our moorings. Our hypothesis is that most variability in the Gulf Stream strength is also reflected in tide gauges along the US Southeast coast. There is a long-term record of coastal sea level from Fernandina Beach, which will be directly inshore of our moorings. We also plan to use sea level variability from the Ft. Pulaski tide gauge station. If Gulf Stream variability is correlated to coastal sea level, this offers the possibility to reconstruct Gulf Stream variability going back over 100 years.