Mesoscale Variability in the Brazil/Malvinas Confluence Region Revisited

MARTIN SARACENO

Foz de Iguazu, Brasil

Congreso; AGU Meeting of the Americas; 2010

AGU

The Brazil/Malvinas Confluence region plays a major role in the South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation since it is a crossroad of waters with different origins and properties such as the North Atlantic Deep Water and the Antarctic Intermediate Waters. The stirring associated with the Brazil/Malvinas Confluence constitutes an important factor setting the characteristics of global deep water masses and therefore plays an important role in global climate variability. Yet the spatio/temporal variability associated to the Confluence is not well known. One of the key factors that contribute to the mixing of the waters is the formation and fate of eddies. In the present study, an objective methodology is applied to detect and follow the eddies in the Confluence region using a database of 16 years of remote sensed Sea Surface Height (SSH) images. Preliminary results suggest seasonal and interannual variability in the number of eddies: it is found that there is a higher number of eddies in winter than in summer and that the number of eddies decrease considerably in 2001. Links between these observations and the spatio/temporal variability of the fronts and circulation of the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean are discussed.