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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
In this presentation I will revisit some of my work on Agulhas Leakage. Agulhas Leakage is the process by which warm and salty Indian Ocean water 'leaks' into the South Atlantic, against the prevailing eastward circulation in the Southern Ocean. This process is highly nonlinear, as it depends on the shedding of large rings off the Agulhas Retroflection, about 6 times per year. I will show that Agulhas Ring formation is probably a result of barotropic instability of the Agulhas Current/Agulhas Return Current system. Agulhas Leakage has long been suspected to have an impact on the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). I will discuss some earlier modeling studies that indeed support this suggestion. However, conclusive studies with more modern modeling tools are still lacking, as the representation of Agulhas Leakage in state-of-the-art ocean climate models is very poor.
Host: Angel E. Garcia