The Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio Current

The Gulf Stream is a strong and historically important ocean current that runs through the Florida Straits, flows along the eastern seaboard of the United States, veers eastwards near 36°N latitude around North Carolina, and subsequently moves towards northwest Europe. This image from June 10, 2026—drawn from the GHRSST Level 4 MUR sea surface temperature analysis product—shows the comparatively warmer surface waters of the stream visible in dark red along the east coast of the US. Its curls and related eddies become more apparent as the current flows into cooler waters in the North Atlantic.

The Kuroshio Current (also known as the Black Current or the Japan Current) flows across the northwestern reaches of the Pacific Ocean. Similar to the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio is a western boundary current that moves warm equatorial water northward along the western side of an ocean basin. The current is visible in light red along the southern and eastern coast of Japan.

Both the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio Current play important roles in the weather and climate of the regions, in cyclone formation, in nutrient and sediment transport, and in fisheries.

You can read a popular science approach to western boundary currents, ocean dynamics, and NASA's ECCO model and datasets in Going with the Flow, or watch a short video called An Ocean in Motion on the subject.

Visit Worldview to visualize near real-time imagery and historical imagery from NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS); find more imagery in the Worldview weekly image archive.