Gulf Stream Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward accelerating current off the east coast of North America. At about , it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current,
Drift current same direction as the electric field, but the resulting conventional current points in the same direction as the electric field in both cases. If an electric field is applied to an electron in a vacuum, the electron will accelerate faster and faster, in approximately a straight line. A drift current looks very different than that up close. Typically, electrons are moving randomly in all directions (Brownian motion), frequently changing direction when they collide with grain boundaries or other disturbances. Between collisions, the electric field subtly accelerates them in one direction. So over time, they move at the drift velocity on