Abstract
The South Brazil Bight is a section of the Brazilian margin mainly
dominated by the poleward Brazil Current flow, their meanderings and
eddies. We evaluated the mean mesoscale for the region, and an
anticyclonic feature was highlighted over the São Paulo Plateau. Around
that feature, cyclonic eddies were also accentuated. The combination of
these structures dominate the region, forming an eddy corridor. Using
eddy detection dataset, we reveal that the signal on the plateau was
directly related to the presence of anticyclones. The cyclones in the
region present both local and remote origins, however, most of the
anticyclones are from remote sources. More than 95% of these
anticyclones were Agulhas Rings, which could or could not have been
subjected to splitting or merging processes. On the plateau we observe
an average of 5.3 anticyclones per year. However, these rate is related
not only to the number of anticyclones but also to the time they remain
there. We observe that Agulhas Rings reside in the region for 50.8 days,
consequently, they occupy the plateau for almost 75% of the year.
During half of the residence time, there is a multi-pattern interaction
with cyclones. This relationship between eddies of opposite polarity
creates a shielding process. The anticyclones become shielded and
trapped by the cyclones, have their progress delayed, and their course
deflected toward the Brazil Current. This was the first observation of
this process involving the Agulhas Rings and the first study of the
subsequent eddy-current interaction in the region.