Western Boundary Time Series

Florida Current Transport Time Series - Data Products



The Florida Current transport time series presented in these products are shown in Sverdrups (Sv). One Sverdrup is a flow rate defined to equal one million cubic meters per second (1 Sv=106 m3s-1). The long term mean transport of the Florida Current has been found to be 32 Sv (Larsen, 1992; Baringer and Larsen, 2001; Meinen et al., 2010; Volkov et al., 2024). Three Florida Current transport time series products are available below:

1) Florida Current transports from vessel surveys along 27°N in the Florida Straits

1982 to present

This time series product includes in situ Florida Current transport measurements from cable calibration cruises and hydrographic surveys conducted across the Florida Straits at 27°N over the project's history (dating back to 1982). These section transports are integrated from ocean velocity data measured at nine sites spanning the Straits at 27°N (note: on some cruises in the 1990s, only eight sites were used). Data are collected via Pegaus profiler, GPS dropsonde or lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler (LADCP), measuring the full water column. The data have been corrected for the barotropic tide using the tidal constituents derived by Mayer et al. (1984). In the figure above, values from this file collected between 2000 and 2024 are represented as red (dropsonde) and blue (LADCP) dots.

2) Daily Florida Current transports estimated from the Florida Straits cable voltages

1982 to present

This time series product includes daily estimates of Florida Current transports derived from voltage measurements recorded from a submarine telecommunications cable spanning the Florida Straits near 27°N, between West Palm Beach Florida, and Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama Island. The recorded cable voltages can be correlated to the transport of the Florida Current flowing across the cable. More information on this technique can be found on the project's cable physics page. Since 2000, NOAA/AOML has managed the processing and public distribution of these cable transports. We have recently determined that voltages collected since 2000 required a processing update to include a correction for the secular change in the earth's magnetic field over time (Volkov et al., 2024). The data linked below have had this correction applied (and are represented as the black line in the figure above). Prior to 2000, data processing was managed by Dr. Jimmy Larsen, who led the Florida Current project out of NOAA/PMEL. These historical cable transport estimates (from 1982 through 1998) are also available below (Larsen, 1992). The daily mean transport values are averaged around noon GMT. Missing data are denoted by "NaN".

  • NOAA/AOML Daily Mean Transport Data (by year)
  • 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

  • Historical Daily Mean Transport Data (by year)
  • 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998

    3) Florida Current transports from altimetry

    1992 to present

    This time series product includes Florida Current transport estimates from satellite altimetry. These transport estimates are obtained from the linear regression of the cable transport estimates on the crossflow sea level differences along the descending track 178 of Topex/Poseidon, Jason series, and Sentinel-6MF satellites, and are available every 10 days (Volkov et al., 2020). More information on this technique can be found on the project's altimetry page.


    Citing Western Boundary Time Series (WBTS) project data:

    The data products linked above are made freely available to the public. Please acknowledge any use of these data with the following (or similar) reference:

    "These Florida Current transport velocity times series are made freely available by NOAA's Western Boundary Time Series project at (https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/western-boundary-time-series/), and are funded by NOAA's Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) program."