Examination of interannual variability of sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean using the physical decomposition dethod

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingrong Chen ◽  
Yi Cai ◽  
Fangli Qiao

 The physical decomposition method suggested by Qian (2012) is used to examine the interannual variability of sea surface temperature (SST) and anomaly (SSTA) in the Indian Ocean (IO) for the period 1945.2003. The monthly mean SSTs taken from the global ocean reanalysis produced by the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) are decomposed into four terms. The first term is the zonally averaged monthly climatological SST ([Tt(ϕ)]), which features relatively warm surface waters in the tropical IO and relatively colder surface waters over the southern IO. This term also has a relatively low SST pool between the Equator and 20°N. The SST at the center of the pool in summer is about 1-2°C lower than in spring and autumn. The second term is the spatially-varying monthly climatological SSTA (Tt*(λ,ϕ)), due mainly to the topographic effect and seasonal variation in wind forcing. The values of Tt*(λ,ϕ) are negative over the western coastal waters and positive over the eastern coastal and shelf waters in the tropical and northern IO. The third term is the zonally-averaged transient SSTA([T(ϕ,t)']Y). The largest values of [T(ϕ,t)']Y occur over the subtropical and mid-latitudes of the IO, which differs from the SSTA in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean. Time series of zonally and meridionally averaged T(ϕ,t)'Y in the tropical-subtropical IO is strongly correlated with the Indian Ocean basin-wide (IOBW) mode. The fourth term is the spatially-varying transient SSTA (T(λ,ϕ,t)*Y']. The REOF analysis of the fourth term demonstrates that the first REOF is correlated strongly with the South Indian Ocean Dipole (SIOD) mode. The second REOF is correlated strongly with the equatorial Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode. The third REOF is highly correlated with the tropical IOBW mode.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mai Nakazato ◽  
Shoichiro Kido ◽  
Tomoki Tozuka

AbstractThe Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is an interannual climate mode of the tropical Indian Ocean. Although it is known that negative sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the eastern pole during the positive IOD are stronger than positive SST anomalies during the negative IOD, no consensus has been reached on the relative importance of various mechanisms that contribute to this asymmetry. Based on a closed mixed layer heat budget analysis using a regional ocean model, here we show for the first time that the vertical mixing plays an important role in causing such asymmetry in SST anomalies in addition to the contributions from the nonlinear advection and the thermocline feedback proposed by previous studies. A decomposition of the vertical mixing term indicates that nonlinearity in the anomalous vertical temperature gradient associated with subsurface temperature anomalies and anomalous vertical mixing coefficients is the main driver of such asymmetry. Such variations in subsurface temperature are induced by the anomalous southeasterly trade winds along the Indonesian coast that modulate the thermocline depth through coastal upwelling/downwelling. Thus, the thermocline feedback contributes to the SST asymmetry not through the vertical advection as previously suggested, but via the vertical mixing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (23) ◽  
pp. 10205-10219
Author(s):  
Bicheng Huang ◽  
Tao Su ◽  
Yongping Wu ◽  
Guolin Feng

AbstractThe linkage between sea surface temperature (SST) and evaporation (EVP) plays an important role in air–sea interactions. In this study, the interaction mechanism of SST and EVP during boreal autumn was studied using correlation analysis, composite analysis, the EVP decomposition method, and singular value decomposition. The results showed that the correlation between SST and EVP in the Indian Ocean was reversed from positive to negative in the late 1990s. The significant positive SST–EVP relationship was attributed to the Indian Ocean basin mode forcing upon EVP during 1980–90. The decrease in wind speed–induced EVP and SST warming led to a significant negative SST–EVP relationship during 2005–15. Moreover, the negative SST–EVP correlation occurred when the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) and subtropical Indian Ocean dipole (SIOD) exhibited inverse phases. The low-level moisture–EVP–SST feedback dominated the negative SST–EVP correlation in the negative IOD and positive SIOD (nIOD–pSIOD) pattern, whereas the wind–EVP–SST feedback played the leading role in the positive IOD and negative SIOD (pIOD–nSIOD) pattern. The EVP anomalies induced by the low-level anomalous anticyclone and cyclone were the main causes of the SST anomalies with inverse phases of the IOD and SIOD. The correlation between the SST and EVP reversal from positive to negative implies that the effect of the atmosphere on the ocean is as important as the external forcing of the ocean on the atmosphere.


Author(s):  
Delima Mentari Amara ◽  
Yuniar Mulyani ◽  
Alexander M. A. Khan ◽  
Herman Hamdani

Tembang is a pelagic fish which is important in Indonesia and the development on the Sunda Strait. The Indian Ocean Dipole could affect oceanography and at the same time will affect the population of fishes. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of IOD and oceanographic factors on the catch of Tembang fish. This research was conducted in the Sunda Strait waters by looking at the Dipole Mode Index (DMI) and oceanographic ocean conditions such as sea surface temperature and chlorophyll as well as the production of fish catches for 11 years from 2008-2018. IOD affects the catch of Tembang fish by 35.8%. Temperature influences the catch of Tembang fish in the Sunda Strait by 9.48%. Klorofil-a influences the catch of Tembang fish in Sunda Strait by 38.6%. DMI, Temperature, and Chlorophyll affect fish catches by 26.9%.


2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (17) ◽  
pp. 3428-3449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert S. Fischer ◽  
Pascal Terray ◽  
Eric Guilyardi ◽  
Silvio Gualdi ◽  
Pascale Delecluse

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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 140 (12) ◽  
pp. 3867-3884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Shi ◽  
Harry H. Hendon ◽  
Oscar Alves ◽  
Jing-Jia Luo ◽  
Magdalena Balmaseda ◽  
...  

Abstract In light of the growing recognition of the role of surface temperature variations in the Indian Ocean for driving global climate variability, the predictive skill of the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies associated with the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) is assessed using ensemble seasonal forecasts from a selection of contemporary coupled climate models that are routinely used to make seasonal climate predictions. The authors assess predictions from successive versions of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Predictive Ocean–Atmosphere Model for Australia (POAMA 15b and 24), successive versions of the NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFSv1 and CFSv2), the ECMWF seasonal forecast System 3 (ECSys3), and the Frontier Research Centre for Global Change system (SINTEX-F) using seasonal hindcasts initialized each month from January 1982 to December 2006. The lead time for skillful prediction of SST in the western Indian Ocean is found to be about 5–6 months while in the eastern Indian Ocean it is only 3–4 months when all start months are considered. For the IOD events, which have maximum amplitude in the September–November (SON) season, skillful prediction is also limited to a lead time of about one season, although skillful prediction of large IOD events can be longer than this, perhaps up to about two seasons. However, the tendency for the models to overpredict the occurrence of large events limits the confidence of the predictions of these large events. Some common model errors, including a poor representation of the relationship between El Niño and the IOD, are identified indicating that the upper limit of predictive skill of the IOD has not been achieved.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinquan Zhou ◽  
Stéphanie Duchamp-Alphonse ◽  
Masa Kageyama ◽  
Franck Bassinot ◽  
Xiaoxu Shi ◽  
...  

<p>Today, precipitation and wind patterns over the equatorial Indian Ocean and surrounding lands are paced by monsoon and Walker circulations that are controlled by the seasonal land-sea temperature contrast and the inter-annual convection over the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool, respectively. The annual mean surface westerly winds are particularly tied to the Walker circulation, showing interannual variability coupled with the gradient of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomaly between the tropical western and southeastern Indian Ocean, namely, the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). While the Indian monsoon pattern has been widely studied in the past, few works deal with the evolution of Walker circulation despite its crucial impacts on modern and future tropical climate systems. Here, we reconstruct the long-term westerly (summer) and easterly (winter) wind dynamics of the equatorial Indian Ocean (10°S−10°N), since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) based on i) primary productivity (PP) records derived from coccolith analyses of sedimentary cores MD77-191 and BAR94-24, retrieved off the southern tip of India and off the northwestern tip of Sumatra, respectively and ii) the calculation of a sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly gradient off (south) western Sumatra based on published SST data. We compare these reconstructions with atmospheric circulation simulations obtained with the general coupled model AWI-ESM-1-1-LR (Alfred Wegener Institute Earth System Model).</p><p>Our results show that the Indian Ocean Walker circulation was weaker during the LGM and the early/middle Holocene than present. Model simulations suggest that this is due to anomalous easterlies over the eastern Indian Ocean. The LGM mean circulation state may have been comparable to the year 1997 with a positive IOD, when anomalously strong equatorial easterlies prevailed in winter. The early/mid Holocene mean circulation state may have been equivalent to the year 2006 with a positive IOD, when anomalously strong southeasterlies prevailed over Java-Sumatra in summer. The deglaciation can be seen as a transient period between these two positive IOD-like mean states.</p>


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