Acknowledgements

We want to thank the staff of the Abteilung Meeresphysik of the Institut für Meereskunde Kiel, the crews of FS METEOR and FS POLARSTERN and all scientists who shared their data with us. We appreciate the cooperation with O. Boebel who coordinated the RAFOS float experiment together with us. The ALACE data were kindly provided by R. Davis and the results of the primitive equations model were provided by A. Semtner and R. Tokmakian. The ERS-1 wind data were processed by the Centre ERS d'Archivage et de Traitement in France (CERSAT). The reanalyzed ECMWF wind data were provided by B. Barnier. Publication costs were partly covered by National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Physical Oceanography Division. This study was supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn under the grant 03F0157A and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. This is a WOCE contribution.