Figure 1. Study area denoting the region for the Caribbean Sea particle analysis (red box). Surface currents time-averaged from the HYCOM climatology; the colors indicate the current’s magnitude, the arrows’ current direction, and the red asterisks the location from which the particles were released. The acronyms shown are referred to in the text and correspond to the following: Gulf of Mexico (GoM), Yucatan Peninsula (YP), Florida Current (FC), Gulf Stream (GC), Loop Current (LC), Caribbean Current (CC), Guyana Current (GC), North Brazil Current (NBC), North Equatorial Atlantic (NEA), North Equatorial Current (NEC), North Equatorial Recirculation Region (NERR).
2.1 Data