The Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC) region in the South Atlantic Ocean is characterized by the thermal gradients of the meeting between the warm Brazil Current (BC) and the cold Malvinas Current (MC). The region is considered a key region for understanding the linkage between Antarctica and South America. This paper aims to describe the atmospheric wind modulation forced by the thermal contrasts of the BMC region. Winds were available from the QuikScat satellite and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. Sea surface temperature (SST) was derived from the AMSR sensor onboard the Aqua satellite. Analysis of the satellite data demonstrated that wind intensity fields were directly related to the SST fields attesting the coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere at the BMC region. The satellite data confirms former evidence (Pezzi et al., 2005, 2009; Acevedo et al., 2010) that wind intensity increases over the warm waters of BC and decreases over the cold waters of the MC. The reanalysis data was not as able as the satellite data to represent the atmospheric modulation in terms of wind intensity. This work suggests that the use of satellite data is important when studying ocean-atmosphere coupling over regions of intense oceanic mesoscale activity.
Redes Sociais