The Role of the South Atlantic on the Interbasin and Pole-to-Pole Connections

The South Atlantic plays an important role in the climate of the adjacent continents and contributes actively to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Despite this, and the advance achieved since the World Ocean Current Experiment (WOCE) in the nineties, our understanding of the South Atlantic variability still lags behind that of other basins. In particular, the role of the tropical and South Atlantic on interbasin climate interactions is scarcely known. To fill this gap, the Climate and Ocean – Variability, Predictability, and Change Program (CLIVAR) has recently made one of its research foci on Tropical Basin Interaction, recognizing among other things that the impact of the tropical South Atlantic on other basins is not well understood. For instance, one of the highest systematic biases in global climate models is encountered in the South Atlantic. In addition, as an active part of the AMOC, the South Atlantic links Antarctic and the Southern Ocean to the North Atlantic and Arctic. Therefore, we need to have a better understanding of how the South Atlantic variability influences the interbasin exchange, the AMOC and the biogeochemical cycles at different spatial and temporal scales.

The goal of this Research Topic is to improve our understanding of the physical and biogeochemical processes that link the South Atlantic to the other ocean basins and within the Atlantic as a whole through either oceanic or atmospheric teleconnections. Recent studies suggest that the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian basins interact with each other in a two-way fashion, mainly through the tropics at the seasonal to multidecadal scales. Since tropical and South Atlantic variability controls rainfall over the adjacent continents, we need to understand the physical processes involved in this interbasin interaction to increase our ability to predict weather and climate. There is strong evidence that the physical and biogeochemical properties have already changed in the South Atlantic, but the involved mechanisms are still not well understood. They might be related to the recent negative trends in sea-ice extent in both Arctic and Antarctic that impact deep-water formation and the AMOC. The latter has important consequences for the global climate. Therefore, this Research Topic expects contributions on the mechanisms that determine the physical and biogeochemical variability in the South Atlantic in light of the ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupled system. We are particularly interested in contributions on new observational and numerical methods that potentially improve our knowledge of the role of the South Atlantic on interbasin and pole-to-pole exchanges.

Based on the scope of the present Research Topic, we welcome contributions on, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Changes in the physical and biogeochemical properties of the South Atlantic at various spatial and temporal scales;
• Impact of South Atlantic variability in the interbasin interactions;
• The role of the South Atlantic on the ocean-atmosphere and ocean-sea ice-atmosphere processes;
• The role of the South Atlantic on the AMOC variability and change;
• The impact of the South Atlantic on different monsoon systems, ENSO and other modes of climate variability;
• Observational, modeling and remote sensing methods applied to the South Atlantic variability;
• Ocean biogeochemical cycles, acidification and deoxygenation in the South Atlantic;
• The role of the South Atlantic on the biological carbon pump, water mass formation and modification, ocean mesoscale processes;
• Cyclogenesis and storm tracks in the South Atlantic.