Untangling the drivers of ocean variability in the Southwest Atlantic

Abstract

Variability of the Southwest Atlantic Ocean is a key contributor to the regional climate and is a manifestation of a variety of signals such as seasonal to interannual variability (e.g. El Nino-Southern Oscillation, ENSO), natural decadal-scale variations and more recently global warming. Research thus far suggests a complex regional ocean circulation. Though variability of this circulation has profound consequences for both regional and basin-scale climate, the mechanisms that cause these variations over a range of timescales remain poorly understood in comparison, for example, with the Northwest Atlantic. This project brings together researchers from two key oceanographic institutions and one atmospheric institute, namely the Climate Change Research Centre at University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, the Oceanographic Institute and the Institute of Astronomy Geophichs and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), to embark on a comprehensive assessment of the ocean climate drivers of the Southwest Atlantic Ocean from interannual through to multi-decadal timescales as well as its interactions with the atmosphere. This proposal represents a substantial contribution to the thematic project "impact of the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean on South American climate for the 20th and 21st centuries" (FAPESP 08158101-9). In that, it addresses several aspects of ocean dynamics, thermodynamics and air-sea interaction through the analysis of model output and observational data. (AU)