Referee Comment

Abstract

This is an interesting study of the reasons behind the predominance of cyclonic spirals of different substances in the marine environment of the northern hemisphere (equivalently, anticyclonic spirals in the southern hemisphere). The explanation is unexpectedly simple but clearly physically relevant. Another valuable finding is the explanation of one of the processes that systematically drives patchiness on the sea surface. The study is sound and professionally performed. Even though Introduction provides perhaps too a massive flow of the information, it is well written and serves as a good summary to the experts from other parts of the world. The authors use an ocean model with a very high resolution that evidently is able to resolve a number of fine C1 OSD