Satellite observations have revealed a remarkably strong positive correlation between sea-surface temperature (SST) and surface winds on oceanic mesoscales of 10–1000 km. While this SST influence on the atmosphere had previously been identified from several in situ observational studies, its widespread existence in regions of strong SST gradients throughout the World Ocean and the detailed stru...

[1] The relationships among the boreal spring Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (SAM), the Indian Ocean (IO) sea surface temperature (SST), and East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) are examined statistically in this paper. The variability of boreal spring SAM is closely related to the IO SST. When the SAM is in its strong positive phase in boreal spring, with low-pressure anomalies over the south po...

Effects of atmospheric intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) on the Indian Ocean zonal dipole mode (IOZDM) are investigated by analyzing available observations and a suite of solutions to an ocean general circulation model, namely, the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). Data and model solutions for the period 1991–2000 are analyzed, a period that includes two strong IOZDM events, during 1994 an...

Tropical warm pools appear as the primary mode in the distribution of tropical sea surface temperature (SST). Most previous studies have focused on the role of atmospheric processes in homogenizing temperatures in the warm pool and establishing the observed statistical SST distribution. In this paper, a hierarchy of models is used to illustrate both oceanic and atmospheric mechanisms that contr...

The response of coral-reef ecosystems to contemporary thermal stress may be in part a consequence of recent or historical sea-surface temperature (SST) variability. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether: (i) there was a relationship between the historical frequency of SST variability and stress experienced during the most recent thermal-stress events (in 1998 and 2005-2006) and (ii) cora...

A linear model that couples an ocean mixed layer with a simple dynamic atmosphere is used to study the mechanism for decadal variability over the tropical Atlantic. An unstable mode with a dipole sea surface temperature (SST) pattern similar to observed decadal variability in the tropical Atlantic emerges in the time integration of the model. A wind–evaporation–SST feedback is responsible for t...

Short-range ocean forecast and reanalysis systems routinely combine observations from satellite altimetry, satellite sea surface temperature (SST), and in situ temperature and salinity, to initialise global and regional ocean models. The most critical observation type for eddy-resolving applications is arguably satellite altimetry. To quantify the impact of satellite altimetry observations on a...

A set of twelve state-of-the-art coupled ocean-atmosphere General Circulation Models (OAGCMs) is explored to assess their ability to simulate the main teleconnections between the West African monsoon (WAM) and the tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) at the interannual to multi-decadal time scales. Such teleconnections are indeed responsible for the main modes of precipitation variability o...