Oceanographic equipment used in the Agulhas Current Times Series Experiment.

(University of Miami)

At a Glance

The Agulhas Current is one of the strongest in the world and transports enormous amounts of ocean heat. The expansion of the current in Indian Ocean could have implications for global climate change.

A major ocean current in the Indian Ocean is widening, which could have significant implications for global climate change, a new study says.

Researchers atUniversity of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciencefound that the Indian Ocean's Agulhas Current, the Indian Ocean's version of the Gulf Stream, is "getting wider rather than strengthening."

According to a press release, .

In the study published Nov. 9 in the Advance Online Publication of the journal , the scientists found that "intensifying winds in the region may be increasing the turbulence of the current, rather than increasing its flow rate."

Using 22 years of satellite data and measurements collected during three scientific trips to the current that is more than a mile deep and flows along the east coast of South Africa, the scientists concluded that it has broadened and not strengthened since the early 1990s.

(MORE:)

The Agulhas Current is one of the strongest in the world, notes the press release, and transports enormous amounts of ocean heat. It not only has an impact on the regional climate of Africa, it also affects "global climate as part of the ocean's global overturning circulation."

"Changes in western boundary currents could exacerbate or mitigate future climate change," said Lisa Beal, a UM Rosenstiel School professor of ocean sciences and lead author of the study. "Currently, western boundary current regions are warming at three times the rate of the rest of the world ocean and our research suggests this may be related to a broadening of these current systems."

According to the press release, previous studies have suggested that "accelerated warming rates observed over western boundary current regions, together with ongoing strengthening and expansion of the global wind systems predicted by climate models relate to an intensification and poleward shift of western boundary currents as a result of human-made climate change."

"To find decades of broadening, rather than intensification, profoundly impacts our understanding of the Agulhas Current and its future role in climate change," said study co-author Shane Elipot, a UM Rosenstiel School associate scientist. "Increased eddying and meandering could act to decrease poleward heat transportwhile increasing coastal upwelling and the exchange of pollutants and larvae across the current from the coast to the open ocean."

MORE ON WEATHER.COM:9 Amazing Views of Climate Change From the Sky

Severe drought reveals the remains of a tree on the banks of the Madeira River near Nova Olinda do Norte, Brazil, Oct. 21, 2005. (© Daniel Beltrá, courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago )