Brazil-Falkland Confluence

Typical temperature values for the Brazil Current are between 18 and 28 degrees Celsius, decreasing as it moves poleward.

Typical salinities for the Brazil Current range between 35 and 36psu with some isolated spots as high as 37 psu.

At the very bottom of the Brazil–Falkland Confluence Zone there is equatorward flowing Weddell Sea Deep Water.

The first path gets redirected back equatorward and actually creates a large anticyclonic eddy with the original Brazil Current.

It will continue to follow this poleward tract till about 50 degrees South latitude where it will once again be picked back up by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and head East.

There is a lot of research going into the study of these high energy turbulent mixing areas, but it is still far too early to understand these mesoscale processes in depth.

Therefore, the BMC has an impact on commercial fishing to the point where fishermen track where the collision occurs throughout the year.

From a global perspective, the BMC is important because the cold Falkland warms as it encounters the subtropical climate which leads to the outgassing of CO2 (warmer water cannot contain as much gas), and the warm Brazil current cools as it encounters the same climate which has the opposite effect - cooler water can contain more gas so the cooling of the Brazil increases the uptake of CO2.

[8] Current research is focusing in on trying to better observe the Brazil–Falkland Confluence Zone so the dynamics of this system can be better explained.

Intense vertical mixing in these zones create a very fertile area for the production of biological species.

This zone is looked at as a major atmospheric carbon sink due to the amount of primary production that takes place here which is vitally important in our changing climate.