Transports and Pathways of the Upper-Layer Circulation in the Western Tropical Atlantic

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Abstract
The mean warm water transfer toward the equator along the western boundary of the South Atlantic is investigated, based on a number of ship surveys carried out during 1990–96 with CTD water mass observations and current profiling by shipboard and lowered (with the CTD/rosette) acoustic Doppler current profiler and with Pegasus current profiler. The bulk of the northward warm water flow follows the coast in the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) from latitudes south of 10°S, carrying 23 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) above 1000 m. Out of this, 16 Sv are waters warmer than 7°C that form the source waters of the Florida Current. Zonal inflow from the east by the South Equatorial Current enters the western boundary system dominantly north of 5°S, adding transport northwest of Cape San Roque, and transforming the NBUC along its way toward the equator into a surface-intensified current, the North Brazil Current (NBC). From the combination of moored arrays and shipboard sections just north of the equator along 44°W... Abstract The mean warm water transfer toward the equator along the western boundary of the South Atlantic is investigated, based on a number of ship surveys carried out during 1990–96 with CTD water mass observations and current profiling by shipboard and lowered (with the CTD/rosette) acoustic Doppler current profiler and with Pegasus current profiler. The bulk of the northward warm water flow follows the coast in the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) from latitudes south of 10°S, carrying 23 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) above 1000 m. Out of this, 16 Sv are waters warmer than 7°C that form the source waters of the Florida Current. Zonal inflow from the east by the South Equatorial Current enters the western boundary system dominantly north of 5°S, adding transport northwest of Cape San Roque, and transforming the NBUC along its way toward the equator into a surface-intensified current, the North Brazil Current (NBC). From the combination of moored arrays and shipboard sections just north of the equator along 44°W...

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