Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Role of Air–Sea Interaction in the Long Persistence of El Niño–Induced North Indian Ocean Warming

Yan Du Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Environmental Dynamics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China, and International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii

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Shang-Ping Xie International Pacific Research Center, and Department of Meteorology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii

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Gang Huang Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

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Kaiming Hu Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

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Print Publication:
15 Apr 2009
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI2590.1
Page(s):
2023–2038
Restricted access

Abstract

El Niño induces a basin-wide increase in tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) sea surface temperature (SST) with a lag of one season. The north IO (NIO), in particular, displays a peculiar double-peak warming with the second peak larger in magnitude and persisting well through the summer. Motivated by recent studies suggesting the importance of the TIO warming for the Northwest Pacific and East Asian summer monsoons, the present study investigates the mechanisms for the second peak of the NIO warming using observations and general circulation models. This analysis reveals that internal air–sea interaction within the TIO is key to sustaining the TIO warming through summer. During El Niño, anticyclonic wind curl anomalies force a downwelling Rossby wave in the south TIO through Walker circulation adjustments, causing a sustained SST warming in the tropical southwest IO (SWIO) where the mean thermocline is shallow. During the spring and early summer following El Niño, this SWIO warming sustains an antisymmetric pattern of atmospheric anomalies with northeasterly (northwesterly) wind anomalies north (south) of the equator. Over the NIO as the mean winds turn into southwesterly in May, the northeasterly anomalies force the second SST peak that persists through summer by reducing the wind speed and surface evaporation. Atmospheric general circulation model experiments show that the antisymmetric atmospheric pattern is a response to the TIO warming, suggestive of their mutual interaction. Thus, ocean dynamics and Rossby waves in particular are important for the warming not only locally in SWIO but also on the basin-scale north of the equator, a result with important implications for climate predictability and prediction.

Corresponding author address: Yan Du, Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Environmental Dynamics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Rd., Guangzhou 510301, China. Email: duyan@scsio.ac.cn

Abstract

El Niño induces a basin-wide increase in tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) sea surface temperature (SST) with a lag of one season. The north IO (NIO), in particular, displays a peculiar double-peak warming with the second peak larger in magnitude and persisting well through the summer. Motivated by recent studies suggesting the importance of the TIO warming for the Northwest Pacific and East Asian summer monsoons, the present study investigates the mechanisms for the second peak of the NIO warming using observations and general circulation models. This analysis reveals that internal air–sea interaction within the TIO is key to sustaining the TIO warming through summer. During El Niño, anticyclonic wind curl anomalies force a downwelling Rossby wave in the south TIO through Walker circulation adjustments, causing a sustained SST warming in the tropical southwest IO (SWIO) where the mean thermocline is shallow. During the spring and early summer following El Niño, this SWIO warming sustains an antisymmetric pattern of atmospheric anomalies with northeasterly (northwesterly) wind anomalies north (south) of the equator. Over the NIO as the mean winds turn into southwesterly in May, the northeasterly anomalies force the second SST peak that persists through summer by reducing the wind speed and surface evaporation. Atmospheric general circulation model experiments show that the antisymmetric atmospheric pattern is a response to the TIO warming, suggestive of their mutual interaction. Thus, ocean dynamics and Rossby waves in particular are important for the warming not only locally in SWIO but also on the basin-scale north of the equator, a result with important implications for climate predictability and prediction.

Corresponding author address: Yan Du, Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Environmental Dynamics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Rd., Guangzhou 510301, China. Email: duyan@scsio.ac.cn

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