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A total of 63 standard Surface Velocity Program drifters (drogued at 15 m) were released in the subarctic North Pacific between August 1990 and October 1994 in 12 deployments. In addition, 40 drifters drogued at 120 m were also released in the same area. The statistics of the flow field within the mixed-layer (15 m) and the underlying pycnocline (120 m), at 500 km resolution, has been described with seasonal maps of mean velocity, velocity variance, and the ratio of eddy to mean kinetic energy. A more detailed statistical analysis of the regimes encompassing a boundary current (the Alaskan Stream) and a region of topographically-induced eddy variability (the Emperor Seamounts) has also been performed.
A description of the eddy field in the vicinity of the Emperor Seamounts, as delineated by the drifter trajectories, has also been completed. The observations reveal a pair of counter-rotating mesoscale eddies attached for an extended period of time to the leeside of the seamounts, and provide a useful test of laboratory and numerical models of flow over submerged topography.
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