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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Agulhas leakage predominantly responds to the southern hemisphere westerlies
Journal of Physical Oceanography, Volume 43, No. 10, Year 2013
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Description
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 highresolution 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 responsemainly to the strengthening westerlies over the last few decades. © 2013 American Meteorological Society.
Authors & Co-Authors
Durgadoo, Jonathan V.
Germany, Kiel
Geomar - Helmholtz-zentrum Für Ozeanforschung Kiel
Loveday, Benjamin R.
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Reason, Christopher J.C.
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Penven, Pierrick
France, Plouzane
Laboratoire D'océanographie Physique et Spatiale Lops
Biastoch, Arne
Germany, Kiel
Geomar - Helmholtz-zentrum Für Ozeanforschung Kiel
Statistics
Citations: 140
Authors: 5
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1175/JPO-D-13-047.1
e-ISSN:
15200485