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Statistical analyses and model-data inter-comparisons are performed to evaluate the model's ability to reproduce the dynamics in the upper layers (< 2000 m) of the South Atlantic ocean. Outputs of an eddy-resolving Ocean General Circulation Model (OGCM) are analyzed and compared with observed data. The model, a 1/12-degree, 22-layer implementation of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) to the South Atlantic, was forced with monthly-mean products from the NCEP Reanalysis for the period 1960 to 2010. The numerical experiment was capable to reproduce the large scale and the mesoscale dynamic in the South Atlantic and in the Agulhas region. The vertical structure is in agreement with in situ data, the model has lower skill when compared with PIRATA lower temperatures, and is able to capture the seasonal and annual variability in the tropical Atlantic. Furthermore, sensitive change until 2007 is clear in the vertical structure, at 4°N–38°W; 0°–35°W and 10°S–10°W, suggesting an important change in the stratification. The primary results concern a significant change in the decadal anomalies of the temperatures and salinity, which exhibit a warmer and saltier water in the southeastern Atlantic. Furthermore, linear trends found in the transport time-series in the North Brazil Current, and the South Equatorial Current were seen to correspond with increasing trends of the warmer water from the Agulhas Current into South Atlantic. The integrated transport during the period 1960–2010, shows an increase in westward changes in the large-scale circulation south of Africa are show in the negative trends indicate a widening of the “Agulhas gap” and increase in westward volume transport since 1980. It is therefore suggested that variability in the Agulhas System on the last two decades is affecting the dynamic in the South Atlantic, namely the temperature and the volume transport, reach the tropical region of the Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface signature of the Agulhas rings propagating across the South Atlantic Ocean is observed based on 3 independent datasets: TMI/AMSR-E satellite sea surface temperature, Argo profiling floats and a merged winds product derived from scat- terometer observations and reanalysis results. A persistent pattern of cold (negative) SST anomalies in the eddy core, with warm (positive) anomalies at the boundary is revealed. This pattern contrasts with the classical idea of a warm core anti-cyclone. Taking advantage of a moving reference frame corresponding to the altimetry-detected Agulhas rings, modifications of the surface winds by the ocean induced currents and SST gradients are evaluated using satellite SST and wind observations. As obtained, the averaged stationary thermal expression and mean eddy-induced circulation are coupled to the marine atmospheric boundary layer, leading to surface wind anomalies. Consequently, an average Ekman pumping associated with these mean surface wind variations is consistently emerging. This average Ekman pumping is found to very well explain the SST anomaly signatures of the detected Agulhas rings. Particularly, this mechanism seems to be the key factor determining that these anti-cyclonic eddies exhibit stationary imprints of cold SST anomalies near their core centers. A residual phase with the maximum SSH anomaly and wind speed anomaly is found to the right of the mean wind direction, apparently maintaining a coherent stationary thermal ex pression coupled to the marine atmospheric boundary layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agulhas Current plays a crucial role in the thermohaline circulation through its leakage into the South Atlantic Ocean. Under both past and present climates, the trade winds and westerlies could have the ability to modulate the amount of Indian-Atlantic inflow. Compelling arguments have been put forward suggesting that trade winds alone have little impact on the magnitude of Agulhas leakage. Here, employing three ocean models for robust analysis-a global coarse-resolution, a regional eddy-permitting, and a nested high-resolution eddy-resolving configuration-and systematically altering the position and intensity of the westerly wind belt in a series of sensitivity experiments, it is shown that the westerlies, in particular their intensity, control the leakage. Leakage responds proportionally to the intensity of westerlies up to a certain point. Beyond this, through the adjustment of the large-scale circulation, energetic interactions occur between the Agulhas Return Current and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that result in a state where leakage no longer increases. This adjustment takes place within one or two decades. Contrary to previous assertions, these results further show that an equatorward (poleward) shift in westerlies increases (decreases) leakage. This occurs because of the redistribution of momentum input by the winds. It is concluded that the reported present-day leakage increase could therefore reflect an unadjusted oceanic response mainly to the strengthening westerlies over the last few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The exchange of heat and salt between the South Indian Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean, at the southern terminus of the Agulhas current, forms a crucial link in the global ocean circulation. It has been surmised that upstream retroflections in this current could produce temporary interruptions to the exchange, but that their impact would depend on the vertical extent of such retroflections and on their duration. The fortuitous presence at sea of a research vessel has now enabled us to investigate such an episode at subsurface levels in combination with remote sensing of the sea surface. We present here the first in situ evidence that an upstream or early retroflection can extend to a depth of well over 750m and last for 5 months. This event was likely triggered upstream by the happenstance of two Natal Pulses, large cyclonic eddies inshore of the Agulhas current. These eddies short-circuited the Agulhas with its Return current, leading to the shedding of three large Agulhas rings in quick succession. The arrival of a third cyclonic eddy when the Retroflection was still quite retracted did not lead to another ring shedding event. The resulting early retroflection may have had the effect of stalling the shedding of Agulhas rings and their motion towards the Cape Basin. However, these early retroflections are too scarce to allow generic statements on their generation or consequences, and the relation with large-scale environmental factors. It is likely that the observed withdrawal of the retroflection into the Transkei Basin is a fortuitous result of a series of contingent interactions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Agulhas Current on the east coast of South Africa is a major western boundary current that exchanges heat and salt between the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans. The current retroflects as it deflects away from the African continent at the southern tip of the Agulhas Bank, a biologically productive extension of the continental shelf south of the South African coast. The less energetic Benguela Current borders the Agulhas Bank to the west. Little is known about mesoscale interactions between the Agulhas Current and the shelf waters of the Agulhas Bank or how these processes influence the biology of the bank. In this study, physical and biological data collected during a dedicated cruise in September 2010 allowed the identification of several mesoscale features that indicate a strong effect of the current on the bank, including a Natal Pulse that forced the Agulhas Current onto the Agulhas Bank. While on the bank itself, the current entrained particles that were then transported offshore. We also found evidence of upwelling on the southeast edge of the Agulhas Bank, which is thought to be a source of water for a cold ridge that characterizes the eastern region of the bank. Large fluctuations of the thermocline, consistent with internal waves, were observed inshore of the Agulhas Current, with high phytoplankton concentrations at their crests. We suggest that this is a physical effect, with doming of the waves concentrating plankton at their crests, thereby creating episodic biological hotspots. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Satellite altimetry suggests that large anticyclonic eddies (rings) originating from the Agulhas Current retroflection occasionally make their way across the entire South Atlantic Ocean. What happens when these rings encounter a western boundary current? In this work, interactions between a "train" of nonlinear lens- like eddies and a Southern Hemisphere continental boundary are investigated analytically and numerically on a β plane. The train of eddies is modeled as a steady double-frontal zonal current with the same vorticity and transport as the eddies themselves. The continental boundary is represented by a vertical wall, which is purely meridional in one case and is tilted with respect to the north in another case. It is demonstrated analytically that the eddy-wall encounter produces an equatorward flow parallel to the continental wall, thus suggesting a weakening of the transport of the associated (poleward flowing) western boundary current up-stream of the encounter zone and unchanged transport downstream. A large stationary eddy is established in the contact zone because its β-induced force is necessary to balance the other forces along the wall. The size of this eddy is directly proportional to the transport of the eddy train and the meridional tilt of the wall. These scenarios are in good agreement with results obtained numerically using an isopycnal Bleck and Boudra model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: During the reoccupation of the WOCE transect A10 at 30°S by the BEAGLE2003 cruise, the SHOTS project partners collected a large number of samples for the analysis of isotopic tracers. 137Cs was mostly deposited on the oceans surface during the late 1950s and early 1960s, after the atmospheric detonation of large nuclear devices, which mostly occurred in the Northern Hemisphere. The development of advanced radioanalytical and counting techniques allowed to obtain, for the first time in this region, a zonal section of 137Cs water concentrations, where little information existed before, thus constituting an important benchmark for further studies. 137Cs concentrations in the upper waters (0–1000m) of the south-eastern Atlantic Ocean are similar to those observed in the south-western Indian Ocean, suggesting transport of 137Cs labeled waters by the Agulhas current to the Benguela Current region. In contrast, bomb radiocarbon data do not show this feature, indicating the usefulness of 137Cs as a radiotracer of water mass transport from the Indian to the South Atlantic Ocean. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Inter-ocean exchange south of Africa takes place largely through the movement of Agulhas Rings into the Cape Basin. Recent observations have shown that the highly energetic flow field in this basin consists of anti-cyclonic rings as well as cyclonic eddies. Very little is known of the characteristics of the cyclonic eddies. Using altimetric data, this study determines the location, frequency and seasonality of these cyclonic eddies their size, trajectories, life spans and their association with Agulhas Rings. Cyclonic eddies were seen to split, merge and link with other cyclonic eddies, where splitting events created child cyclonic eddies. The 105 parent and 157 child cyclonic eddies identified over a decade show that on average 11 parent and 17 child cyclonic eddies appear annually in AVISO merged absolute dynamic topography data along the continental slope. Thirty-two percent follow an overall west south-westward direction, with 27% going west north-westward. Average translocation speeds are 2.2±0.1km/day for parent and 3.0±0.2km/day for child cyclonic eddies. Parent cyclonic eddy lifespan averaged 250±18days; whereas child cyclonic eddies survived for only 118±11days. A significant difference in lifespan for parent and child cyclonic eddies identified in the north and south region of the study area was detected. Seventy-seven percent of the northern and 93% of the southern cyclonic eddies were first detected directly adjacent to passing Agulhas Rings, suggesting a vital interaction between these mesoscale eddies within the region. Topographical features appeared to affect the behaviour and lifespan of these deep cyclonic eddies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agulhas leakage to the South Atlantic (SA) exhibits strong anti-correlations with the mass flux of the Agulhas Current. This is accompanied by the migration of the Agulhas retroflection whose normal position (NPR) is near Cape Agulhas, where the slant of the South African coast is very small. During periods of strong incoming flux (SIF), the retroflection shifts upstream to Port Elizabeth or East London, where the coastline shape has a "kink", i.e., the slant changes abruptly from small on the west side, to large (about 55°) on the east side. Here, we show that the variability of rings shedding maybe attributed to this kink. To do so, we develop a nonlinear analytical model for retroflection near a coastline that consists of two sections, one strongly slanted (corresponding to the east side) and the other zonal (corresponding to the west side). The principal difference between this and the model of a single straight slanted coast discussed in our earlier papers is that a free purely westward propagation of eddies along the zonal coastline section is allowed in the kinked case. This introduces the interesting situation where the strong slant of the coast east of the kink prohibits the formation and shedding of rings whereas the coast west of the kink encourages such shedding. Therefore, the kink model "locks" the position of the retroflection forcing it to occur just downstream of the kink. That is, rings are necessarily shed from the retroflection area in our kinked model, regardless of the eastern coast slant. By contrast, the application of "no-kink" model for an "averaged" slant (at the same point as the kink) leads to the conclusion that shedding is almost completely arrested by the slant. We suggest that the difference between the intensities of rings shedding during NPR and SIF is due to the shift in the zero curl line in respect to the kink. When the zero curl intersects the coast north of the kink the transport is small but it is large when the zero curl is situated south of the kink. Simple process-oriented numerical simulations are in fair agreement with our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The inter-ocean transport of salty, warm Indian Ocean water to the Atlantic Ocean has been shown to stabilize the meridional overturning of the Atlantic. This salt and heat is mostly transported by Agulhas rings, shed at the Agulhas retroflection. To investigate the contribution of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) to this salt and heat flux, 7 hydrographic sections in the south-west Indian and south-east Atlantic Oceans were investigated using Optimum Multi-parameter Analysis. The mean contributions of AAIW from the South Indian Ocean (iAAIW) and that of the Drake Passage (dAAIW), over the density range σ n =27.25–27.7, showed that iAAIW was the dominant AAIW type east of the Agulhas Current retroflection. The maximum contributions of iAAIW were confined to the Agulhas Current, the Agulhas Return Current and Agulhas rings. In the subdivided density ranges, iAAIW was always the dominant water type in the upper density range (σ n =27.25–27.4), whilst in the lower density range (σ n =27.4–27.7) the dAAIW/iAAIW mix was almost 50/50. West of the retroflection the mean iAAIW/dAAIW mix over the density range σ n =27.25–27.7 was around 50/50 for the southern part of the Cape Basin. In the upper density range the average mix of dAAIW/iAAIW was 45/55, whilst for the lower density range the mix was 46/54. Section by section comparisons, however, showed considerable differences in the observed mix of dAAIW/iAAIW in both the upper and lower density ranges. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent proxies suggest that, at the end of the last glacial, there was a significant increase in the injection of Agulhas rings into the South Atlantic (SA). This brought about a dramatic increase in the salt-influx (from the Indian Ocean) into the SA helping re-start the then-collapsed meridional overturning cell (MOC), leading to the termination of the Younger Dryas (YD). Here, we propose a mechanism through which large variations in ring production take place. Using nonlinear analytical solutions for eddy shedding, we show that there are restricted possibilities for ring detachment when the coast is oriented in the north-south direction. We define a critical coastline angle below which there is rings shedding and above which there is almost no shedding. In the case of the Agulhas region, the particular shape of the African continent implies that rings can be produced only when the retroflection occurs beyond a specific latitude where the angle is critical. During glaciation, the wind stress curl (WSC) vanished at a latitude lower than that of the critical angle, which prohibited the retroflection from producing rings. When the latitude at which the WSC vanishes migrated poleward towards its present day position, the corresponding coastline angle decreased below the critical angle and allowed for a vigorous production of rings. Simple process-oriented numerical simulations (using the Bleck and Boudra model) are in satisfactory agreement with our results and enable us to affirm that, during the glacials, the behavior of the Agulhas Current (AC) was similar to that of the modern East Australian Current (EAC), for which the coastline slant is supercritical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interactive comment on the article "Agulhas Ring Injection Into the South Atlantic During Glacials and Interglacials." It notes that this article has many speculations about the consequent effect on the salinity of the North Atlantic and on the Atlantic meridional overturning cell, which needs more justification. It suggests that the substantial part of the paper should take a considerable revision to make it more concise and easier to follow with an improvement to English. It defines retroflection as the zonal position of the separated current several deformation radii away from the coastline. It points out that this article has very interesting ideas worth to be published in "Ocean Science."