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Is the Brazil Current eddy‐dominated to the north of 20°S?
Author(s) -
Soutelino R. G.,
da Silveira I. C. A.,
Gangopadhyay A.,
Miranda J. A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2010gl046276
Subject(s) - current (fluid) , geology , climatology , eddy current , meteorology , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , physics , quantum mechanics
The Brazil Current (BC) originates with the arrival and bifurcation of the southernmost branch of the South Equatorial Current (sSEC) between 10–20°S. Previous climatological studies showed a stratified sSEC bifurcation and that the resulting southern branch formed a shallow BC ‐ a weak western boundary current. The analysis of three recent synoptic surveys and global model outputs challenge the description of a continuous BC. The sSEC bifurcation signal near the continental margin was unclear in the analyses, and the velocity fields were dominated by mesoscale eddies. Recurrent anticyclones that seemed to be related to the meandering BC led us to construct a picture of a flow strongly influenced by topography and probably very unstable. Given this new emerging scenario, we hypothesize that the Brazil Current is eddy‐dominated to the north of 20°S.