The South Atlantic Current (SAC) is a cold, eastward

ocean current An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, sh ...

which forms the southern part of the South Atlantic Gyre. It is fed by the

Brazil Current The Brazil Current is a warm water current that flows south along the Brazilian south coast to the mouth of the Río de la Plata. Description This current is caused by diversion of a portion of the Atlantic South Equatorial Current from where ...

, and the fraction of it which reaches the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n coast feeds the

Benguela Current The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela Front in the no ...

. Its surface velocity is about 0.2 m/s and its average volume transport is about 30

Sverdrup In oceanography, the sverdrup (symbol: Sv) is a non- SI metric unit of volumetric flow rate, with equal to . It is equivalent to the SI derived unit cubic hectometer per second (symbol: hm3/s or hm3⋅s−1): is equal to . It is used almost ...

s, both being higher in the western portion and decreasing to the east. It is continuous with the northern edge of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The SAC and ACC are distinguished by the subtropical front, a boundary at approximately 40°S where

sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature (or ocean surface temperature) is the ocean temperature, temperature of ocean water close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies in the literature and in practice. It is usually between and below the sea ...

and

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

decrease sharply from north to south. The seafaring is usually easier and thus safer in area of the South Atlantic Current than in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, though also slower.

References

* * Stramma, Lothar, and Ray G. Peterson. “The South Atlantic current.” ''Journal of Physical Oceanography'', vol. 20, no. 6, June 1990, pp. 846–859, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1990)020<0846:tsac>2.0.co;2. Currents of the Atlantic Ocean {{Marine-current-stub

See also

References