The warm water inflow into the western tropical Atlantic boundary regime, spring 1994

Abstract

During March 1994 a survey of the western boundary of the tropical Atlantic, between 10°N and 10°S, was carried out by conductivity-temperature-depth and current profiling using shipboard and lowered acoustic Doppler current profilers. In the near-surface layer, above σθ = 24.5, the inflow into the boundary regime came dominantly from low latitudes; out of the 14 Sv that crossed the equator in the upper part of the North Brazil Current (NBC), only 2 Sv originated from south of 5°S, while 12 Sv came in from the east at 1°-5°S with the South Equatorial Current (SEC). -from Authors