The Agulhas Return Current (ARC) emerges from the Agulhas Retroflection (Bang 1970), i.e. the oceanic region south of the tip of Africa. There the southwestward Agulhas Current, which is the western boundary current of the South Indian Ocean, folds back (retroflects) onto itself, feeding the ARC and occasionally occluding large eddies, i.e. Agulhas Rings (Lutjeharms 1996). Located nominally along the 39°S parallel, the ARC current exhibits eastward surface velocities of up to 4 knots (»2 ms^-1).

Features of the large-scale circulation of the Agulhas Current system (taken from Lutjeharms and van Ballegooyen (1984).