Prevailing winds, the Cariolis force, and sometimes the configuration of boardering landmasses frequently combine to channel ocean currents into cell-like circulation that resemble large cyclones and anticyclones. In the ocean basin these loops are called gyres, a term that is used for both clockwise and counterclockwise oriented circulation. Gyres may in fact be so large that they can encompass an entire ocean. This video of water draining in my front porch after a storm helps to illustrate what it is that a series of gyres looks like as the ocean water circulates. This is a reach I know, but it is all I have!
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