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.

A Research Topic on the Role of the South Atlantic on the Interbasin and Pole-to-Pole Connections is published in Frontiers in Marine Science recently. This special issue aims 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. Two CLIVAR members, Ronald Buss de Souza and Regina R Rodrigues, contributed to this issue.  Please visit the Research Topic page to see the articles. 

Meanwhile, a special collection on Ocean Sciences in the South Atlantic has recently been published in Nature Communications: Earth & Environment. Regina Rodrigues, co-chair of CLIVAR Atlantic Region Panel, is an editor for this special collection. Many current or former ARP members contributed to this collection, including: 

• A review paper led by Maria Paz Chidichimo on the role of the South Atlantic in the AMOC;
• A perspective led by Murray Roberts on how decreasing the disparity between the global south and north can help to build a unified approach to assess ocean ecosystem health in the Atlantic;
• A comment piece led by Renellys Perez on how women have taken a greater role in oceanographic campaigns in the South Atlantic – a field traditionally dominated by men – leading to a more inclusive science.

In addition, Dr. Regina Rodrigues published a Guest Post in Carbon Brief discussing how ocean science in the South Atlantic is beginning to overcome its historical legacy and is doing so while mirroring the diversity of its own waters and the official release of the Collection with a huge emphasis on AMOC.