December 19, 2008; 2100z; Naval Research Lab, global day/night view.Yep, the circulation system crosses the equator as a consistent 'entity' defying Coriolis. Wow.
The center of the Atlantic vortex is just north of The Tropic of Cancer at 30 degrees latitude just west of Africa. What a mess. There are strong winds adding to the circulation off the North American continent into the Atlantic. Noted are strong winds heading directly north over Greenland into the Arctic Circle.
There are actually four distinct circulation centers. The other two besides the two noted off Africa in the northern hemisphere and off Brazil at the Equator, there is one at the 'usual' place in the Gulf of Mexico northwest of the Yucatan and in the Pacific at about 27 degrees north latitude just south of Mexico.
There is a fifth one east of Brazilia at 15 degrees south latitude. Wow, what a mess. This is where a hurricane manifested earlier in the year, I believe.
Sea heights at the outer periphery of the circular air movement is higher, especially in the Southern Oceans. The winds of the central vortex in Mid-Atlantic near SA is pushing surface waters into the Southern Hemisphere before the northern winds have a lesser effect in the Northern Oceans.
The heat from the equatorial waters are being forced south toward Antarctica. The same dynamics in less proportions are occuring in the northern waters of the Equator. There is some artificial upwelling under the vortex west of Brazil. It appears there is higher dynamics in the northern ocean, but, my estimation is that the ocean heights north of the Equator is a result of 'less surface area' and 'less water' than the southern seas.
There is a very unusal upper tropopsheric vortex over the Atlantic between Africa and South America. That is a result of a global circulation that connects the southern hemisphere with the northern hemisphere as a result of the 'collection of water vapor' over the South American continent as well as that of Wouthern Africa.
