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A new study by University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science researchers found that the Indian Ocean's Agulhas Current is getting wider rather than strengthening. The findings, which have important implications for global climate change, suggest that intensifying winds in the region may be increasing the turbulence of the current, rather than increasing its flow rate.
Using measurements collected during three scientific cruises to the Agulhas Current, the Indian Ocean's version of the Gulf Stream, researchers estimated the long-term transport of the current leveraging 22 years of satellite data. They found the Agulhas Current has broadened, not strengthened, since the early 1990s, due to more turbulence from increased eddying and meandering.
One of the strongest currents in the world, the Agulhas Current flows along the east coast of South Africa, transporting warm, salty water away from the tropics toward the poles. The Agulhas, which is hundreds of kilometers long and over 2,000-meters deep, transports large amounts of ocean heat and is considered to have an influence not only on the regional climate of Africa, but on global climate as part of the ocean's global overturning circulation.
There's no knowing if the trend will affect the monsoon.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday November 11 2016, @07:22PM
I think that the point was, that most of the people in India depend on the monsoon for their agriculture cycles and, well, to not overheat in summer. So any changes in the monsoon means you have to change when you sow and when you harvest.
I could be totally wrong about that, though; I'm not an expert on Indian agriculture. One news item I remember from this year is that the asphalt was melting somewhere in India (51°C), and they were waiting for the monsoon to come and bring water and cool things down and allow their crops to begin growing.
The monsoon is a periodic phenomenon. This Agulhas current is a periodic phenomenon. It depends on how strongly these two cycles are coupled (if at all). Since the monsoon blows from the sea, and this current is under that sea, it's not unthinkable that there's a coupling.
(Score: 2) by BK on Friday November 11 2016, @07:38PM
There's no knowing what his point was! </sarcasm>
His implication was so broad that he could have been referring to what you said or any number of other things. 'No Knowing' is a discussion killer - unless you mock it.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 11 2016, @08:01PM
> No Knowing' is a discussion killer - unless you mock it.
Yeah, because that really added to the discussion.
So you aren't a denier, just an uptight nitpicker.
That's why we come to soylent, for the high quality discussion!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 11 2016, @11:49PM
> No Knowing' is a discussion killer - unless you mock it.
Yeah, because that really added to the discussion.
So you are saying you don't know if not knowing is not a good thing? We have just found the square root of ignorance! Oh, great.