Skip to main content

Northeast US Ecosystem Indicator Catalog

53 Warm Core Rings

Last updated July 23, 2026

Description: Number of warm core rings produced annually by the Gulf Stream off the Northeast US

Contributor(s): Avijit Gangopadhyay

Affiliations: UMass

Indicator Family:

Indicator Category:

Synthesis Theme:

53.1 Introduction to Indicator

Warm core rings are eddies formed from Gulf Stream meanders that transport warm Gulf Stream water into the cooler waters of the slope sea just off the Northeast US continental shelf. These rings transport both warm water and associated plankton and fish from the Gulf Stream towards the shelf and may form important habitat for oceanic fishery species, such as Illex squid. The indicator presented here extends published work [83]; with updated counts of warm core rings.

53.2 Key Results and Visualizations

Prior to 2000, an average of 18 warm core rings were formed by the Gulf Stream off the Northeast US shelf. From 2000-2017, an average of 33 warm core rings were formed. Annual numbers of warm core rings have been updated using the same methods for each year since 2017, but the regime shift analysis has not been updated.

Mid-Atlantic


New England

#> NULL


53.3 Implications

The increased instability of the Gulf Stream position and warming of the Slope Sea may be connected to the regime shift increase in the number of warm core rings formed annually in the Northwest Atlantic [83,84]. When warm core rings and eddies interact with the continental slope they can transport warm, salty water to the continental shelf [85], which can alter the habitat and disrupt seasonal movements of fish [86]. Transport of offshore water onto the shelf is happening more frequently [86,87] and can contribute to marine heatwaves in the Mid-Atlantic Bight [85,88] as well as the movement of shelf-break species inshore [86,89,90].

53.4 Indicator statistics

Spatial scale: Full shelf

Temporal scale: Annual

Variable definitions

53.5 Get the data

Point of contact: Avijit Gangopadhyay

ecodata dataset: ecodata::wcr

Tech Doc link: https://noaa-edab.github.io/tech-doc/wcr.html

53.5.1 Public Availability

Source data are NOT publicly available.

53.5.2 Accessibility Constraints

Please contact

References

83.
Gangopadhyay A, Gawarkiewicz G, Silva ENS, Monim M, Clark J. An Observed Regime Shift in the Formation of Warm Core Rings from the Gulf Stream. Scientific Reports. 2019;9: 1–9. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-48661-9
84.
Gangopadhyay A, Gawarkiewicz G, Silva ENS, Silver AM, Monim M, Clark J. A Census of the Warm-Core Rings of the Gulf Stream: 1980–2017. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 2020;125: e2019JC016033. doi:10.1029/2019JC016033
85.
Chen K, Gawarkiewicz G, Yang J. Mesoscale and Submesoscale Shelf-Ocean Exchanges Initialize an Advective Marine Heatwave. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 2022;127: e2021JC017927. doi:https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC017927
86.
Gawarkiewicz G, Todd R, Zhang W, Partida J, Gangopadhyay A, Monim M-U-H, et al. The Changing Nature of Shelf-Break Exchange Revealed by the OOI Pioneer Array. Oceanography. 2018;31: 60–70. doi:10.5670/oceanog.2018.110
87.
Gawarkiewicz G, Fratantoni P, Bahr F, Ellertson A. Increasing Frequency of Mid-depth Salinity Maximum Intrusions in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.
88.
Gawarkiewicz G, Chen K, Forsyth J, Bahr F, Mercer AM, Ellertson A, et al. Characteristics of an Advective Marine Heatwave in the Middle Atlantic Bight in Early 2017. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2019;6. Available: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2019.00712
89.
Potter IF, Galuardi B, Howell WH. Horizontal movement of ocean sunfish, Mola mola, in the northwest Atlantic. Marine Biology. 2011;158: 531–540. doi:10.1007/s00227-010-1578-2
90.
Worm B, Lotze HK, Myers RA. Predator diversity hotspots in the blue ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. National Academy of Sciences; 2003;100: 9884–9888. doi:10.1073/pnas.1333941100