Abstract
Analysis of visual images of the offshore ice margin of the Labrador Coast, taken on four consecutive days from the NOAA‐5 satellite, reveals horizontal oscillations with a mean wavelength of 75 km and amplitude of 15 km. The oscillations travel downstream, with the Labrador Current, at a speed C ≈ 0.2 m s‐1. Oscillations of similar periods are seen in moored current meter records. An examination of available models of baro tropic and baro‐clinic instability shows that the latter mechanism could account for the generation of the observed oscillations from the shear in the Labrador Current.

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