The Agulhas Current is the Western Boundary Current of the South-West Indian Ocean and is part of the westward-flowing South Equatorial Current. It flows down the east coast of Africa from 27 S to 40 S. It is narrow, swift and strong.
The sources of the Agulhas Current are the East Madagascar Current, the Mozambique Current and a reticulated part of the Aghulas Current itself. The flow of the Agulhas Current is directed by the topography. The current follows the continental shelf from Maputo to the tip of the Agulhas Bank (Cape Aghulas). Here the momentum of the current overcomes the vorticity balance holding the current to the topography and the current leaves the shelf. In the South-East Atlantic Ocean the current retroflects (turns back on itself) in the Agulhas Retroflection, becoming the Agulhas Return Current. This returns to the Indian Ocean and contributes the major part of the volume of the Agulhas Current by recirculation.
Where the Agulhas turns back on itself the loop of the retroflection pinches off periodically, on average about once every two months, releasing a retroflection eddy into the South Atlantic Ocean. This retroflection eddy or Agulhas ring enters the flow of the Benguela Current and is translated north-westward across the Atlantic Ocean.
External link
Agulhas current (http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/indian/agulhas.html)
However the importance of currents is also illustrated by the El Niño, in which a temporary reversal of an ocean current causes devastating climatic changes along the west coast of South America.
Surface ocean currents are generally wind driven and develop their typical clockwise spirals in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere due to the coriolis effect.
These currents that flow under the surface of the ocean, and are thus hidden from immediate detection, are called submarine rivers.
On the average, the Agulhascurrent retroflects and returns eastward with part of the flow recirculating in the counter-clockwise flowing subtropical gyre and part of the flow feeding the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
The AgulhasCurrent is the western boundary current of the South Indian Ocean.
Lutjeharms, J.R.E and R.C. van Ballegooyen, 1988: The Retroflection of the AgulhasCurrent.
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