Any of several currents driven by the northeast trade winds blowing over the tropical oceans of the Northern Hemisphere. In the Atlantic ocean, it flows west between the equatorial countercurrent and 30 degrees. Part passes along the northeast side of the West Indies as the Antilles current while part joins the Guiana current and enters the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico as the Caribbean current . In the Pacific Ocean, it crosses from east to west between the approximate latitudes of 10 degrees and 20 degrees. East of the Philippines it divides, part turning south to join the equatorial countercurrent, and part going north to form the Kuroshio . In the Indian Ocean, in northern winter when the northeast monsoon duplicates the trade winds of the other oceans, the north equatorial current flows west and turns to the southwest along the coast of Somaliland as the Somali current . In Northern Hemisphere summer, when the southwest monsoon forms a continuation of the southeast trade winds, the north equatorial current and the equatorial countercurrent are replaced by an eastward flowing monsoon current .