Background currents in the sea of Okhotsk

The concept of background currents is applied to specific physiographicconditions of the Sea of Okhotsk in approximations of barotropic and two-layer models. Unkike traditional notions that the prevailing circulation is cyclonic, the field of effective background currents is dominated by a vast anticyclone in the central and northern areas of the sea and by a cyclone in its southern deep-water area. It is noted that effective divergence and convergence zones are located very similarly to upwelling and downwelling zones, constructed by other authors through diagnostic calculations, and also to the well-known regions of high biological production.