Mechanisms for the Interannual Variability in the Tropical Indian Ocean. Part II: Regional Processes

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 2937-2960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bohua Huang ◽  
J. Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Interannual Variability ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Tropical Ocean ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Sst Anomalies

Abstract To understand the mechanisms of the interannual variability in the tropical Indian Ocean, two long-term simulations are conducted using a coupled ocean–atmosphere GCM—one with active air–sea coupling over the global ocean and the other with regional coupling restricted within the Indian Ocean to the north of 30°S while the climatological monthly sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are prescribed in the uncoupled oceans to drive the atmospheric circulation. The major spatial patterns of the observed upper-ocean heat content and SST anomalies can be reproduced realistically by both simulations, suggesting that they are determined by intrinsic coupled processes within the Indian Ocean. In both simulations, the interannual variability in the Indian Ocean is dominated by a tropical mode and a subtropical mode. The tropical mode is characterized by a coupled feedback among thermocline depth, zonal SST gradient, and wind anomalies over the equatorial and southern tropical Indian Ocean, which is strongest in boreal fall and winter. The tropical mode simulated by the global coupled model reproduces the main observational features, including a seasonal connection to the model El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The ENSO influence, however, is weaker than that in a set of ensemble simulations described in Part I of this study, where the observed SST anomalies for 1950–98 are prescribed outside the Indian Ocean. Combining with the results from Part I of this study, it is concluded that ENSO can modulate the temporal variability of the tropical mode through atmospheric teleconnection. Its influence depends on the ENSO strength and duration. The stronger and more persistent El Niño events in the observations extend the life span of the anomalous events in the tropical Indian Ocean significantly. In the regional coupled simulation, the tropical mode is still active, but its dominant period is shifted away from that of ENSO. In the absence of ENSO forcing, the tropical mode is mainly stimulated by an anomalous atmospheric direct thermal cell forced by the fluctuations of the northwestern Pacific monsoon. The subtropical mode is characterized by an east–west dipole pattern of the SST anomalies in the southern subtropical Indian Ocean, which is strongest in austral fall. The SST anomalies are initially forced by surface heat flux anomalies caused by the anomalous southeast trade wind in the subtropical ocean during austral summer. The trade wind anomalies are in turn associated with extratropical variations from the southern annular mode. A thermodynamic air–sea feedback strengthens these subtropical anomalies quickly in austral fall and extends their remnants into the tropical ocean in austral winter. In the simulations, this subtropical variability is independent of ENSO.

scholarly journals Possible Impact of the Indian Ocean SST on the Northern Hemisphere Circulation during El Niño*

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 3164-3189 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Annamalai ◽  
H. Okajima ◽  
M. Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Precipitation Anomalies ◽  
Sst Anomalies ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract Two atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs), differing in numerics and physical parameterizations, are employed to test the hypothesis that El Niño–induced sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Indian Ocean impact considerably the Northern Hemisphere extratropical circulation anomalies during boreal winter [January–March +1 (JFM +1)] of El Niño years. The hypothesis grew out of recent findings that ocean dynamics influence SST variations over the southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO), and these in turn impact local precipitation. A set of ensemble simulations with the AGCMs was carried out to assess the combined and individual effects of tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean SST anomalies on the extratropical circulation. To elucidate the dynamics responsible for the teleconnection, solutions were sought from a linear version of one of the AGCMs. Both AGCMs demonstrate that the observed precipitation anomalies over the SWIO are determined by local SST anomalies. Analysis of the circulation response shows that over the Pacific–North American (PNA) region, the 500-hPa height anomalies, forced by Indian Ocean SST anomalies, oppose and destructively interfere with those forced by tropical Pacific SST anomalies. The model results validated with reanalysis data show that compared to the runs where only the tropical Pacific SST anomalies are specified, the root-mean-square error of the height anomalies over the PNA region is significantly reduced in runs in which the SST anomalies in the Indian Ocean are prescribed in addition to those in the tropical Pacific. Among the ensemble members, both precipitation anomalies over the SWIO and the 500-hPa height over the PNA region show high potential predictability. The solutions from the linear model indicate that the Rossby wave packets involved in setting up the teleconnection between the SWIO and the PNA region have a propagation path that is quite different from the classical El Niño–PNA linkage. The results of idealized experiments indicate that the Northern Hemisphere extratropical response to Indian Ocean SST anomalies is significant and the effect of this response needs to be considered in understanding the PNA pattern during El Niño years. The results presented herein suggest that the tropical Indian Ocean plays an active role in climate variability and that accurate observation of SST there is of urgent need.

scholarly journals Interaction between El Niño and Extreme Indian Ocean Dipole

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 726-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing-Jia Luo ◽  
Ruochao Zhang ◽  
Swadhin K. Behera ◽  
Yukio Masumoto ◽  
Fei-Fei Jin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Indian Ocean Dipole ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Walker Circulation ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Tropical Ocean ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Major Attention ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Climate variability in the tropical Indo-Pacific sector has undergone dramatic changes under global ocean warming. Extreme Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) events occurred repeatedly in recent decades with an unprecedented series of three consecutive episodes during 2006–08, causing vast climate and socioeconomic effects worldwide and weakening the historic El Niño–Indian monsoon relationship. Major attention has been paid to the El Niño influence on the Indian Ocean, but how the IOD influences El Niño and its predictability remained an important issue to be understood. On the basis of various forecast experiments activating and suppressing air–sea coupling in the individual tropical ocean basins using a state-of-the-art coupled ocean–atmosphere model with demonstrated predictive capability, the present study shows that the extreme IOD plays a key role in driving the 1994 pseudo–El Niño, in contrast with traditional El Niño theory. The pseudo–El Niño is more frequently observed in recent decades, coincident with a weakened atmospheric Walker circulation in response to anthropogenic forcing. The study’s results suggest that extreme IOD may significantly enhance El Niño and its onset forecast, which has being a long-standing challenge, and El Niño in turn enhances IOD and its long-range predictability. The intrinsic El Niño–IOD interaction found here provides hope for enhanced prediction skill of both of these climate modes, and it sheds new light on the tropical climate variations and their changes under the influence of global warming.

scholarly journals The unique mean seasonal cycle in the Indian Ocean anchors its various air-sea coupled modes across the basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinqiang Xu ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Weidong Yu
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Indian Ocean Dipole ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Coupled Modes ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Indian Ocean

AbstractThe interannual variability of the sea surface temperature (SST) in the Indian Ocean is complex and characterized by various air-sea coupled modes, which occur around El Niño/La Niña's peak phase (i.e. December–January–February, DJF). Indian Ocean Dipole Mode (IODM) develops over the tropical Indian Ocean and peaks in September–October–November (SON), while Ningaloo Niño, Subtropical Indian Ocean Dipole (SIOD) and Indian Ocean Basin Mode (IOBM) occur respectively over northwest off Australia, subtropical and tropical Indian Ocean, during boreal winter to spring. The apparent contrast between their divergent regionality and convergent seasonality around DJF triggers the present study to examine the interaction between the local mean monsoonal cycle and the anomalous forcing from El Niño/La Niña. The diagnosis confirms that the Indian Ocean’s unique complexity, including the monsoonal circulation over the tropics and the trade wind over the subtropical southern Indian Ocean, plays the fundamental role in anchoring the various regional air-sea coupled modes across the basin. The SST anomalies can be readily explained by the wind-evaporation-SST (WES) mechanism, which works together with other more regional-dependent dynamic and thermodynamic mechanisms. This implies that El Niño/La Niña brings much predictability for the Indian Ocean variations.

scholarly journals Two Independent Triggers for the Indian Ocean Dipole/Zonal Mode in a Coupled GCM

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (17) ◽  
pp. 3428-3449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert S. Fischer ◽  
Pascal Terray ◽  
Eric Guilyardi ◽  
Silvio Gualdi ◽  
Pascale Delecluse
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Indian Ocean Dipole ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Dynamical Response ◽  
Thermocline Depth ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Abstract The question of whether and how tropical Indian Ocean dipole or zonal mode (IOZM) interannual variability is independent of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability in the Pacific is addressed in a comparison of twin 200-yr runs of a coupled climate model. The first is a reference simulation, and the second has ENSO-scale variability suppressed with a constraint on the tropical Pacific wind stress. The IOZM can exist in the model without ENSO, and the composite evolution of the main anomalies in the Indian Ocean in the two simulations is virtually identical. Its growth depends on a positive feedback between anomalous equatorial easterly winds, upwelling equatorial and coastal Kelvin waves reducing the thermocline depth and sea surface temperature off the coast of Sumatra, and the atmospheric dynamical response to the subsequently reduced convection. Two IOZM triggers in the boreal spring are found. The first is an anomalous Hadley circulation over the eastern tropical Indian Ocean and Maritime Continent, with an early northward penetration of the Southern Hemisphere southeasterly trades. This situation grows out of cooler sea surface temperatures in the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean left behind by a reinforcement of the late austral summer winds. The second trigger is a consequence of a zonal shift in the center of convection associated with a developing El Niño, a Walker cell anomaly. The first trigger is the only one present in the constrained simulation and is similar to the evolution of anomalies in 1994, when the IOZM occurred in the absence of a Pacific El Niño state. The presence of these two triggers—the first independent of ENSO and the second phase locking the IOZM to El Niño—allows an understanding of both the existence of IOZM events when Pacific conditions are neutral and the significant correlation between the IOZM and El Niño.

Predictability of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing-Jia Luo
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Westerly Winds ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere ◽  
The Indian Ocean

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article. The tropical Indian Ocean is unique in several aspects. Unlike the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, the Indian Ocean is bounded to the north by a large landmass, the Eurasian continent. The large thermal heat contrast between the ocean in the south and the land in the north induces the world’s strongest monsoon systems in South and East Asia, in response to the seasonal migration of solar radiation. The strong and seasonally reversing surface winds generate large seasonal variations in ocean currents and basin-wide meridional heat transport across the equator. In contrast to the tropical Pacific and the Atlantic, where easterly trade winds prevail throughout the year, westerly winds (albeit with a relatively weak magnitude) blow along the equatorial Indian Ocean, particularly during the boreal spring and autumn seasons, generating the semi-annual Yoshida-Wyrtki eastward equatorial ocean currents. As a consequence of the lack of equatorial upwelling, the tropical Indian Ocean occupies the largest portion of the warm water pool (with Sea Surface Temperature [SST] being greater than 28 °C) on Earth. The massive warm water provides a huge potential energy available for deep convections that significantly affect the weather-climate over the globe. It is therefore of vital importance to discover and understand climate variabilities in the Indian Ocean and to further develop a capability to correctly predict the seasonal departures of the warm waters and their global teleconnections. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is the one of the recently discovered climate variables in the tropical Indian Ocean. During the development of the super El Niño in 1997, the climatological zonal SST gradient along the equator was much reduced (with strong cold SST anomalies in the east and warm anomalies in the west). The surface westerly winds switched to easterlies, and the ocean thermocline became shallow in the east and deep in the west. These features are reminiscent of what are observed during El Niño years in the Pacific, representing a typical coupled process between the ocean and the atmosphere. The IOD event in 1997 contributed significantly to floods in eastern Africa and severe droughts and bushfires in Indonesia and southeastern Australia. Since the discovery of the 1997 IOD event, extensive efforts have been made to lead the rapid progress in understanding the air-sea coupled climate variabilities in the Indian Ocean; and many approaches, including simple statistical models and comprehensive ocean-atmosphere coupled models, have been developed to simulate and predict the Indian Ocean climate. Essential to the discussion are the ocean-atmosphere dynamics underpinning the seasonal predictability of the IOD, critical factors that limit the IOD predictability (inter-comparison with El Niño-Southern Oscillation [ENSO]), observations and initialization approaches that provide realistic initial conditions for IOD predictions, models and approaches that have been developed to simulate and predict the IOD, the influence of global warming on the IOD predictability, impacts of IOD-ENSO interactions on the IOD predictability, and the current status and perspectives of the IOD prediction at seasonal to multi-annual timescales.

scholarly journals Interdecadal Difference of Interannual Variability Characteristics of South China Sea SSTs Associated with ENSO

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (18) ◽  
pp. 7145-7160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yali Yang ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie ◽  
Yan Du ◽  
Hiroki Tokinaga
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
Easterly Wind ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Sst Warming ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Abstract The correlation between sea surface temperature (SST) and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) persists into post-ENSO September over the South China Sea (SCS), the longest correlation in the World Ocean. Slow modulations of this correlation are analyzed by using the International Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Dataset (ICOADS). ENSO’s influence on SCS SST has experienced significant interdecadal changes over the past 138 years (1870–2007), with a double-peak structure correlation after the 1960s compared to a single-peak before the 1940s. According to the ENSO correlation character, the analysis period is divided into four epochs. In epoch 3, 1960–83, the SST warming and enhanced precipitation over the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean, rather than the Indian Ocean basinwide warming, induce easterly wind anomalies and warm up the SCS in the summer following El Niño. Besides the Indian Ocean effect, during epochs 2 (1930–40) and 4 (1984–2007), the Pacific–Japan (PJ) pattern of atmospheric circulation anomalies helps sustain the SCS SST warming through summer (June–August) with easterly wind anomalies. The associated increase in shortwave radiation and decrease in upward latent heat flux cause the SCS SST warming to persist into the summer. Meanwhile, the rainfall response around the SCS to ENSO shows interdecadal variability, with stronger variability after the 1980s. The results suggest that both the remote forcing from the tropical Indian Ocean and the PJ pattern are important for the ENSO teleconnection to the SCS and its interdecadal modulations.

scholarly journals Internal Variability of Indian Ocean SST

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (18) ◽  
pp. 3726-3738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Jochum ◽  
Raghu Murtugudde
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Interannual Variability ◽  
Indian Monsoon ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Internal Variability ◽  
Ocean Dynamics ◽  
Persistence Time ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Sst Anomalies

Abstract A 40-yr integration of an eddy-resolving numerical model of the tropical Indian Ocean is analyzed to quantify the interannual variability that is caused by the internal variability of ocean dynamics. It is found that along the equator in the western Indian Ocean internal variability contributes significantly to the observed interannual variability. This suggests that in this location the predictability of SST is limited to the persistence time of SST anomalies, which is approximately 100 days. Furthermore, a comparison with other sources of variability suggests that internal variability may play an important role in modifying the Indian monsoon or preconditioning the Indian Ocean dipole/zonal mode.

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