Upper-level circulation in the South Atlantic Ocean

In this paper we present a literature survey of the South Atlantic's climate and its oceanic upper-layer circulation and meridional heat transport. The opening section deals with climate and is focused upon those elements having greatest oceanic relevance, i.e., distributions of atmospheric sea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Progress in Oceanography
Main Authors: Peterson, Ray G., Stramma, Lothar
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 1991
Subjects:
Online Access:https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/32117/
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/32117/1/1-s2.0-0079661191900068-main.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1016/0079-6611(91)90006-8
Description
Summary:In this paper we present a literature survey of the South Atlantic's climate and its oceanic upper-layer circulation and meridional heat transport. The opening section deals with climate and is focused upon those elements having greatest oceanic relevance, i.e., distributions of atmospheric sea level pressure, the wind fields they produce, and the net surface energy fluxes. The various geostrophic currents comprising the upper-level general circulation are then reviewed in a manner organized around the subtropical gyre, beginning off southern Africa with the Agulhas Current Retroflection and then progressing to the Benguela Current, the equatorial current system and circulation in the Angola Basin, the large-scale variability and interannual warmings at low latitudes, the Brazil Current, the South Atlantic Current, and finally to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current system in which the Falkland (Malvinas) Current is included. A summary of estimates of the meridional heat transport at various latitudes in the South Atlantic ends of the survey