E and
9 S. It is surrounded by the islands of Mindanao to the
southeast and Negros, Bohol and Leyte to the northwest.
It is connected to the Sulu Sea
to the west via a passage between Negros and Mindanao, the
Visayan Sea to the north via the Tanon Strait,
the Camotes Sea
to the north via the Bohol Strait
and a passage between Bohol and Leyte, and to the Leyte
Gulf to the northeast via the Surigao Strait. Prominent geographic
features include the islands of Siquijor and Camiguin and
Sogod (in Leyte),
Gingoog, Macajalar and Iligan (in Mindanao) Bays.
This has also been called the Mindanao Sea.
Bourne's picture of the flow in the Atlantic started with the general westward flow around the southern tip of Africa merging with that in the Atlantic, with the combined volume being too great to squeeze through the Straits of Magellan. Thus part of the flow was diverted northwards along the South American coast, into the Gulf of Mexico, and then out between Florida and Cuba and eastwards towards Europe. He also proposed a second type of steady, non-tidal current that flows against the wind during periods of strong winds, with the driving force being a hypothesized upward tilt of the sea surface downwind caused by waves piling up water there. See Peterson et al. (1996).
The portion of the SEC that feeds the BC turns south at about
10-15 S. The incipient BC is shallow and flows closely
confined to the continental shelf, with direct current measurements
at 23 S showing that nearly half of its transport of 11 Sv
was inshore of the the 200 m isobath. There also seems to be
a semi-permanent offshore meander near 22-23 S that may
be related to local upwelling. South of 24 S the BC
flow intensifies at a rate of about 5% per 100 km, with the
intensification apparently linked to a recirculation cell south
of about 30 S (although there is some evidence for an
more extensive recirculation cell extending from 20 to 40 S).
Geostrophic transport estimates for the southern BC based on
shallow or intermediate zero flow levels (1300-1600 m) have ranged
from 18-22 Sv at 33-38 S. Evidence for much deeper
flow (from the examination of water mass characteristics) has led
to estimates ranging from 70-76 Sv at 37-38 S with a
zero flow level at 3000 m. The latter estimates are at latitudes
very close to where the BC separates from the coast and thus may
be considered as estimates of the maximum BC flow.
The BC separates from the continental shelf between 33 and
38 S with the average being near 36 S. There is
some evidence for a seasonal variation in the latitude of this point, with
it being generally farther north in the (local) winter than
in summer. After it separates from the boundary, it continues
to flow in a general southward direction together with the
return flow from the
Falkland Current, with
the southern limit to the warm water it bounds fluctuating
between 38-46 S on time scales of about two months.
After the flow reaches it maximal southern extent it turns back
towards the north (as what is sometimes called the
Brazil Current Front) and appears to close back on its source
flow near 42 S. The north-south excursions of its
southern limit result in eddies averaging about 150 km in
diameter being shed at a rate of about one per week.
It was first proposed by Stommel that the reason the BC is weaker than expected from observed wind fields is because of an opposing effect of the thermohaline circulation. The formation of North Atlantic Deep Water requires a net transfer of thermocline water from the South Atlantic to the North as well as net northward fluxes of intermediate and bottom waters. This leads to the situation where the surface circulation of the South Atlantic subtropical gyre is not a closed system because the majority of the SEC flow turns north and crosses the equator due to the demands of the thermohaline circulation. See Peterson and Stramma (1991).
F.
It is similiar to the South American
zonda.
where g is the
gravitational acceleration,
a standard constant density, and 
the density.
See Turner (1973).