Coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics in the Indian Ocean during 1997-98

Climate variability in the Indian Ocean region seems to be, in some aspects, independent of forcing by external phenomena such as the El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation. But the extent to which, and how, internal coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics determine the state of the Indian Ocean system have not been resolved. Here we present a detailed analysis of the strong seasonal anomalies in sea surface temperatures, sea surface heights, precipitation and winds that occurred in the Indian Ocean region in 1997-98, and compare the results with the record of Indian Ocean climate variability over the past 40 years. We conclude that the 1997-98 anomalies--in spite of the coincidence with the strong El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation event--may primarily be an expression of internal dynamics, rather than a direct response to external influences. We propose a mechanism of ocean-atmosphere interaction governing the 1997-98 event that may represent a characteristic internal mode of the Indian Ocean climate system. In the Pacific Ocean, the identification of such a mode has led to successful predictions of El Ni?o; if the proposed Indian Ocean internal mode proves to be robust, there may be a similar potential for predictability of climate in the Indian Ocean region.     

热带印度洋海温与海表面高度相关关系分析

为了研究热带印度洋偶极子(IOD)与海平面异常之间的相关性,采用经验正交函数分析方法(EOF)及Hilbert-Huang变换等统计方法,分析热带印度洋的海表面温度(SST)与海平面高度异常(SLA)的相关关系。通过对热带印度洋偶极子指数(DMI)与南方涛动指数(SOI)和SLA的相关性分析,得出IOD与El Nio-Southern Oscillation(ENSO)之间可能存在一定相关关系,此外,IOD与海平面变化有很好的相关性。通过对IOD爆发年的DMI以及海平面变化的分析,证实IOD具有季节锁相的重要特征,并探讨了该季节变化与海平面变化的相关关系。结果表明,IOD事件与海平面的变化这两者之间存在很强的一致性。     

Forcing of wet phases in southeast Africa over the past 17,000 years

Intense debate persists about the climatic mechanisms governing hydrologic changes in tropical and subtropical southeast Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum, about 20,000?years ago. In particular, the relative importance of atmospheric and oceanic processes is not firmly established. Southward shifts of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) driven by high-latitude climate changes have been suggested as a primary forcing, whereas other studies infer a predominant influence of Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures on regional rainfall changes. To address this question, a continuous record representing an integrated signal of regional climate variability is required, but has until now been missing. Here we show that remote atmospheric forcing by cold events in the northern high latitudes appears to have been the main driver of hydro-climatology in southeast Africa during rapid climate changes over the past 17,000 years. Our results are based on a reconstruction of precipitation and river discharge changes, as recorded in a marine sediment core off the mouth of the Zambezi River, near the southern boundary of the modern seasonal ITCZ migration. Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures did not exert a primary control over southeast African hydrologic variability. Instead, phases of high precipitation and terrestrial discharge occurred when the ITCZ was forced southwards during Northern Hemisphere cold events, such as Heinrich stadial 1 (around 16,000?years ago) and the Younger Dryas (around 12,000?years ago), or when local summer insolation was high in the late Holocene, that is, during the past 4,000?years.     

Climatic controls on central African hydrology during the past 20,000 years

Past hydrological changes in Africa have been linked to various climatic processes, depending on region and timescale. Long-term precipitation changes in the regions of northern and southern Africa influenced by the monsoons are thought to have been governed by precessional variations in summer insolation. Conversely, short-term precipitation changes in the northern African tropics have been linked to North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies, affecting the northward extension of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and its associated rainbelt. Our knowledge of large-scale hydrological changes in equatorial Africa and their forcing factors is, however, limited. Here we analyse the isotopic composition of terrigenous plant lipids, extracted from a marine sediment core close to the Congo River mouth, in order to reconstruct past central African rainfall variations and compare this record to sea surface temperature changes in the South Atlantic Ocean. We find that central African precipitation during the past 20,000 years was mainly controlled by the difference in sea surface temperatures between the tropics and subtropics of the South Atlantic Ocean, whereas we find no evidence that changes in the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone had a significant influence on the overall moisture availability in central Africa. We conclude that changes in ocean circulation, and hence sea surface temperature patterns, were important in modulating atmospheric moisture transport onto the central African continent.     

Indian Ocean temperature dipole and SSTA in the equatorial Pacific Ocean

The observed sea surface temperature (SST) data of recent 100 years are analyzed and the existence of the Indian Ocean temperature dipole in the equatorial region is exposed further. It is very clear that the amplitude of the positive phase (higher SST in the west and lower SST in the east than normal) is larger than that of the negative phase (higher SST in the east and lower SST in the west). The dipole is stronger in September-November and weaker in January-April than in other months and it also appears obviously inter-annual and inter-decadal variations. Although the Indian Ocean dipole in the individual year seems to be independent of ENSO in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, in general, the Indian Ocean dipole has obviously negative correlation with the Pacific Ocean dipole (similar to the inverse phase of ENSO mode). The atmospheric zonal (Walker) circulation over the equator is fundamental to relate the two dipoles to each other.     

热带印度洋海面温度与高度的相关性分析

基于海面温度与海面高度异常的月均数据,采用EOF、SVD和功率谱分析等方法,对热带印度洋海面温度与海面高度进行特征分析,研究两者在时空结构上的相关性。利用EOF方法分析出海面温度第二模态与海面高度第一模态的空间结构类似,呈现偶极型。相关分析与功率谱表明,两模态的时间序列存在滞后相关和类似的周期结构。SVD结果显示,第一耦合模态的相关系数达0.7左右,且左右场的空间形态呈现东西反相。这表明,海面高度偶极型与海面温度的单极型和偶极型存在着相关。同时,海面高度指数也表现与偶极子指数类似的结构特征。针对上述诊断分析事实特征,对海面温度和海面高度偶极子形成的物理机制进行了初步分析,总结了前人所做的一些工作,指出其中可能的影响因素。     

Interdecadal variability in the tropical Indian Ocean and its dynamic explanation

Interdecadal variability in the tropical Indian Ocean has been analyzed based on the long-term climatic observational data. Case study showed that strong interannual signals formed at the surface can penetrate the depth of seasonal thermocline, where the anomalies last a couple of years. Artificial time series based on damping with exponential decay of selected strong events agree well with the detected interdecadal variability in the tropical Indian Ocean. A possible dynamic explanation for interdecadal variability in the tropical Indian Ocean was proposed that irregular interannual signals can lead to a slowly evolving climatic background with the interdecadal time scale through damping of the memory about anomalies in the seasonal thermocline.     

热带太平洋和印度洋海温对东南亚降水的影响

 应用谱分析的方法,讨论了东南亚降水分别与热带印度洋和太平洋海温的关系.得出热带印度洋和太平洋海温变化对东南亚降水影响的最佳落后时间长度.同时找出了上述2片海域对东南亚降水影响的几个关键区,它可以作为东南亚旱涝预报的强信号因子.     

Signal propagations and linkages of subsurface temperature anomalies in the tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean

The propagation characteristics of signals along different zonal-time profiles are analyzed using surface and subsurface temperature anomalies over the tropical Pacific and Indian oceans. Analyses show that there are intrinsic relationships between El Nio events in the eastern equatorial Pacific and dipole events in the equatorial Indian Ocean. In the region of tropical North Pacific between the equator and 16°N, there is a circle of propagation of subsurface temperature anomalies. El Nio events only happen when the warm subsurface signals reach the eastern equatorial Pacific. Dipole events are characterized when a warm subsurface signal travels along off-equatorial Indian Ocean to the western boundary. From these analyses, we believe that subsurface temperature anomalies can be considered to be the oceanographic early signal to forecast El Nio events in Pacific Ocean and dipole events in Indian Ocean, respectively.     

Interannual atmospheric variability forced by the deep equatorial Atlantic Ocean

Climate variability in the tropical Atlantic Ocean is determined by large-scale ocean-atmosphere interactions, which particularly affect deep atmospheric convection over the ocean and surrounding continents. Apart from influences from the Pacific El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation, the tropical Atlantic variability is thought to be dominated by two distinct ocean-atmosphere coupled modes of variability that are characterized by meridional and zonal sea-surface-temperature gradients and are mainly active on decadal and interannual timescales, respectively. Here we report evidence that the intrinsic ocean dynamics of the deep equatorial Atlantic can also affect sea surface temperature, wind and rainfall in the tropical Atlantic region and constitutes a 4.5-yr climate cycle. Specifically, vertically alternating deep zonal jets of short vertical wavelength with a period of about 4.5?yr and amplitudes of more than 10?cm?s(-1) are observed, in the deep Atlantic, to propagate their energy upwards, towards the surface. They are linked, at the sea surface, to equatorial zonal current anomalies and eastern Atlantic temperature anomalies that have amplitudes of about 6?cm?s(-1) and 0.4?°C, respectively, and are associated with distinct wind and rainfall patterns. Although deep jets are also observed in the Pacific and Indian oceans, only the Atlantic deep jets seem to oscillate on interannual timescales. Our knowledge of the persistence and regularity of these jets is limited by the availability of high-quality data. Despite this caveat, the oscillatory behaviour can still be used to improve predictions of sea surface temperature in the tropical Atlantic. Deep-jet generation and upward energy transmission through the Equatorial Undercurrent warrant further theoretical study.