This study examines the atmospheric response of the deep ocean using 200 instrument years of moored current measurements from across the breadth of the mid-latitude North Pacific. We have found evidence of a seasonal modulation in the ocean eddy kinetic energy beneath the thermocline at several locations north of 35¿N. This modulation is often in phase with the local atmospheric forcing function. At frequencies between 0.1 and 0.01 cpd, correlations between the local wind stress curl and the deep currents have been found. For a few locations the local forced response is parallel to the potential vorticity gradient (∇f/H) and consistent in amplitude with a local topographic Sverdrup balance. Nonlocal forcing in the form of flow along isolines of potential vorticity has been estimated, and it is comparable to the observed flow at some locations, but the modeled flow is not correlated with the observations. Throughout the mid-latitude North Pacific the bottom slope tends to enhance the β effect. This suggests that topography narrows the available bandwidth for forced barotropic Rossby waves, facilitating a quasi-steady topographic Sverdrup response over most of the basin. However, the enhanced β effect reduces the magnitude of the ocean's response to wind forcing. Nonlocally forced Sverdrup currents (flow along isolines of f/H) are the dominant component, but are only of the order of 1 cm s-1. Locally forced Sverdrup currents (flow across isolines of f/H) are typically of the order of 0.1 cm s-1 rms and are not commonly measured. Hence these wind-forced variations are a background level signal in the mid-latitude eddy kinetic energy. In a few isolated areas the bottom slope reduces the β effect. In these regions the local Sverdrup response is amplified and has been observed. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1989