South Atlantic Convergence Zone
{{Short description|Meteorological convergence zone over southern Brazil and Atlantic}}
File:Zona de convergência do Atlântico Sul.jpg
{{Redirect|SACZ|the city in Poland|Nowy Sącz}}
The South Atlantic convergence zone, or SACZ, is an elongated axis of clouds, precipitation, and convergent winds oriented in a northwest–southeast manner across southeast Brazil into the southwest Atlantic Ocean.{{cite web|author=Glossary of Meteorology|date=2009|url=http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?p=1&query=South+Atlantic+convergence+zone&submit=Search|title=South Atlantic convergence zone|publisher=American Meteorological Society|accessdate=2009-06-05}} By definition, the feature is a monsoon trough.{{cite web|title=Monsoon trough|url=http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?p=1&query=monsoon+trough&submit=Search|author=Glossary of Meteorology|publisher=American Meteorological Society|date=2009|accessdate=2009-06-04|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090617192300/http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?p=1&query=monsoon+trough&submit=Search|archivedate=2009-06-17}} It is strongest in the warm season. Thunderstorm activity along the feature magnifies over three or more days when the Madden–Julian oscillation passes into the region, due to the enhanced upper divergence. Low level winds over Rondônia are tied to the strength of this zone, where westerly wind anomalies correlate to active phases of the South American monsoon, while easterly wind anomalies indicate breaks of activity along the SACZ.{{cite web|url=http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/asr/cjones.sacz.extremes.pdf|author1=Leila M. V. Carvalho |author2=Charles Jones |author3=Brant Leibman |name-list-style=amp |title=The South Atlantic Convergence Zone: Intensity, Form, Persistence, and Relationships with Intraseasonal to Interannual Activity and Extreme Rainfall|work=Journal of Climate, vol. 17, pp. 88|date=2003|accessdate=2009-06-05}} The feature is also strongest with negative anomalies in the sea surface temperature pattern lie over the southern Atlantic Ocean, while opposite conditions prevail across the northern Atlantic Ocean.{{cite web|url=http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU04/05043/EGU04-A-05043.pdf|author1=R. De Almeida |author2=R. Haarsma |author3=E. Campos |author4=A. Sterl |name-list-style=amp |title=Impact of SST Anomalies on the South Atlantic Convergence Zone}}