A positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) tends to have stronger cold sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) over the eastern Indian Ocean with greater impacts than warm SSTAs that occur during its negative phase. Two feedbacks have been suggested as the cause of positive IOD skewness, a positive Bjerknes feedback and a negative SST-cloud-radiation (SCR) feedback, but their relative importance is...

Intraseasonal variability [ISV] in the Makassar Strait thermocline is examined through the analysis of along-channel flow, regional sea level anomaly and wind fields from January 2004 through November 2006. The dominant variability of 45–90 day in the Makassar Strait along-channel flow is horizontally and vertically coherent and exhibits vertical energy propagation. The majority of the Makassar...

The North Pacific thermocline (250 to 400 m) is studied using XBT observations acquired during the 1970s and 1980s. Interannual variations (3–5 yr timescales) in thermocline temperature, with O(0.18C) amplitude at 400 m, are found to exhibit westward propagation throughout the extratropical North Pacific up to 458N. Southward of 308N, the features propagate intact across the basin from the east...

Changes in surface wind stress can have a strong influence on the ocean circulation and, hence, on climate. Our focus here is on variations of tropical winds and their impact on the global mean surface temperature (GMST) on time scales from months to decades. The smallness of Coriolis parameter near the equator implies that even small changes in the local winds can translate into large changes ...

Themean east–west sea surface temperature gradient along the equator is a key feature of tropical climate. Tightly coupled to the atmospheric Walker circulation and the oceanic east–west thermocline tilt, it effectively defines tropical climate conditions. In the Pacific, its presence permits the El Ni~ no–SouthernOscillation phenomenon. What determines this temperature gradient within the full...

s of the Talks Overview of IPCC ocean models 12 How well do ocean models simulate the tropics? 12 Sensitivity of ENSO variability in the CCCma coupled model to ocean model parameters and improved simulation of tropical currents with anisotropic viscosity 12 Sensitivity of equatorial currents to wind stress 13 Numerical simulation using an ocean general circulation model 13 How well do ocean mod...

A maximum in the strength of Agulhas leakage has been registered at the interface between the Indian and South Atlantic oceans during glacial Termination II (T-II). This presumably transported the salt and heat necessary for maintaining the Atlantic circulation at rates similar to the present day. However, it was never shown whether these waters were effectively incorporated into the South Atla...

The mechanism that causes an interdecadal oscillation in a coarse resolution sector ocean model forced by mixed boundary conditions is studied. The oscillation is characterized by large fluctuations in convective activity and air/sea heat exchange on a decadal time scale. When the convective activity is large, a strengthening of the southeastward surface flow advects more relatively fresh water...

The response of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode to global warming is investigated based on simulations from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). In response to increased greenhouse gases, an IOD-like warming pattern appears in the equatorial Indian Ocean, with reduced (enhanced) warming in the east (west), an easterly wind trend, and thermocline shoaling in the east....