International attention focuses on a climate change 'trigger'

The science of climate change has led international EU-funded researchers to an area thought to be responsible for redistributing and controlling heat around the globe. The Agulhas Current off the coast of South Africa is said to stimulate the so-called overturning circulation of the Atlantic that plays a significant role in the northward flow of the Gulf Stream and hence climate of Northwest Europe and beyond. At regional scales the Agulhas influences extreme weather events while annual rainfall variations in southern Africa are correlated with warm and cold anomalies in the Agulhas system, in turn associated with several Indian Ocean climate modes.

http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=35835