The North Atlantic Current (also known as North Atlantic Drift and North Atlantic Sea Movement) is a powerful warm ocean current

Ocean current

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun...

 that continues the Gulf Stream

Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...

 northeast. West of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 it splits in two; one branch, the Canary Current

Canary Current

The Canary Current is a wind-driven surface current that is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. This eastern boundary current branches south from the North Atlantic Current and flows southwest about as far as Senegal where it turns west and later joins the Atlantic North Equatorial Current. The...

, goes south, while the other continues north along the coast of northwestern Europe. It is thought to have a considerable warming influence on the climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

, although a minority have disputed this. Other branches include the Irminger Current

Irminger Current

The Irminger Current is a cold north Atlantic ocean current setting westward off the southwest coast of Iceland. It is composed of cold water blown from the Arctic regions by the polar easterly winds. It is also called the East Greenland current....

 and the Norwegian Current

Norwegian Current

The Norwegian Current is a water current that flows north-easterly along the Atlantic coast of Norway at depths of between 50 and 100 meters...

. Driven by the global thermohaline circulation

Thermohaline circulation

The term thermohaline circulation refers to a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes....

 (THC), the North Atlantic Current is also often considered part of the wind-driven Gulf Stream which goes further east and north from the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n coast, across the Atlantic and into the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

.

External links

• The North Atlantic Current. Elizabeth Rowe, Arthur J. Mariano, Edward H. Ryan, The Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies