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The surface and near‐surface (30 m) currents of the eastern mid‐latitude Pacific obtained from 32 satellite‐tracked drifting buoys during the period June 1976 through August 1977 are discussed. These observations of oceanic currents are merged with and are compared to Fleet Numerical Weather Center's daily estimates of surface winds for the same period. Statistical comparisons of these data sets reveal that the drifters move systematically approximately 30° to the right of the surface wind at approximately 1.5% of the wind speed. This relationship between drifter movement and surface winds occurs during the entire period except for the summer months of 1976 when independent of the surface winds the buoy trajectories indicate mesoscale eddy motions with 100 km and 30 day time and space scales, respectively. Drifter liftimes exceeded that of the 9‐m diameter parachute drogues set at 30 m depth, thus enabling a comparison of the currents derived from the drifter motions at the surface and 30 m. These comparisons reveal no systematic difference in the drifter motions with and without drogues. These results suggest a rather uniform flow in the upper 30 m during periods of steady winds. The estimates of the nature of near‐surface currents obtained from the drifters differ from those predicted by Ekman's classical theory of wind‐driven flow, in that there is no evidence of either a reduction in speed or change in direction of the currents over the upper 30 m.

The trajegtories of 16 satellite-tracked drifting buoys from February 1976 through May 1980 and their derived velocities are used to construct a Lagrangian realization of the near-surface circulation of the North Pacific subtropical gyre. A composite transit time around the periphery of this gyre is approximately 4.5 years at an average speed of 15 cm s -•. The details of the surface flow indicated regional differences in mesoscale energetics. Flow variability is low in the eastern and high in the western portions of the northern limb of the gyre. The highest mean speeds and minimum variances are found in the tropical currents of the southern limb.The drifter data is compared with the climatological mean field of dynamic topography (0/500 dbar). This comparison shows significant differences between drifter movement and inferred geostrophic flow. In the eastern mid-latitude region the direction of the drifter motion and dynamic topography is in good agreement; however, the drifter speeds are 5 times greater. In the eastern and southern branches of the gyre, the current magnitudes of the drifters and geostrophic flow are comparable but their directions diverge. Comparison of the drifter trajectories and climatological seasonal sea level pressure maps reveal that the trajectory departures from the dynamic topography can often be related to atmospheric forcing. In the eastern mid-latitudes, the large annual signal in the atmospheric westefiies correlates with a fivefold increase in drifter speeds from summer to winter. In the tropics, a small but persistent Ekman flow component causes the drifters to move northward from the equatorial regions where the mean geostrophic flow•..converges toward the equator. In the eastern limb of the gyre, response to the atmospheric forcing of the Pacific high pressure center causes the trajectories to cross isolines of dynamic topography. The drifters provide a unique insight into the spatial and temporal relationship of geostrophic and wind-driven flow components that influence the near-surface circulation of the subtropical gyre.