scholarly journals Reply [to “Comment on ‘Tropospheric O3distribution over the Indian Ocean during spring 1995 evaluated with a chemistry-climate model’ by A. T. J. de Laat et al.”]

2001 ◽  
Vol 106 (D1) ◽  
pp. 1369-1371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos de Laat ◽  
Jos Lelieveld
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (21) ◽  
pp. 7743-7763 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Santoso ◽  
M. H. England ◽  
W. Cai

The impact of Indo-Pacific climate feedback on the dynamics of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is investigated using an ensemble set of Indian Ocean decoupling experiments (DCPL), utilizing a millennial integration of a coupled climate model. It is found that eliminating air–sea interactions over the Indian Ocean results in various degrees of ENSO amplification across DCPL simulations, with a shift in the underlying dynamics toward a more prominent thermocline mode. The DCPL experiments reveal that the net effect of the Indian Ocean in the control runs (CTRL) is a damping of ENSO. The extent of this damping appears to be negatively correlated to the coherence between ENSO and the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD). This type of relationship can arise from the long-lasting ENSO events that the model simulates, such that developing ENSO often coincides with Indian Ocean basin-wide mode (IOBM) anomalies during non-IOD years. As demonstrated via AGCM experiments, the IOBM enhances western Pacific wind anomalies that counteract the ENSO-enhancing winds farther east. In the recharge oscillator framework, this weakens the equatorial Pacific air–sea coupling that governs the ENSO thermocline feedback. Relative to the IOBM, the IOD is more conducive for ENSO growth. The net damping by the Indian Ocean in CTRL is thus dominated by the IOBM effect which is weaker with stronger ENSO–IOD coherence. The stronger ENSO thermocline mode in DCPL is consistent with the absence of any IOBM anomalies. This study supports the notion that the Indian Ocean should be viewed as an integral part of ENSO dynamics.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1971-1983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Dong ◽  
Michael J. McPhaden

Abstract Both the Indian and Pacific Oceans exhibit prominent decadal time scale variations in sea surface temperature (SST), linked dynamically via atmospheric and oceanic processes. However, the relationship between SST in these two basins underwent a dramatic transformation beginning around 1985. Prior to that, SST variations associated with the Indian Ocean basin mode (IOB) and the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO) were positively correlated, whereas afterward they were much less clearly synchronized. Evidence is presented from both observations and coupled state-of-the-art climate models that enhanced external forcing, particularly from increased anthropogenic greenhouse gases, was the principal cause of this changed relationship. Using coupled climate model experiments, it is shown that without external forcing, the evolution of the IOB would be strongly forced by variations in the IPO. However, with strong external forcing, the dynamical linkage between the IOB and the IPO weakens so that the negative phase IPO after 2000 is unable to force a negative phase IOB-induced cooling of the Indian Ocean. This changed relationship in the IOB and IPO led to unique SST patterns in the Indo-Pacific region after 2000, which favored exceptionally strong easterly trade winds over the tropical Pacific Ocean and a pronounced global warming hiatus in the first decade of the twenty-first century.


2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1339-1352 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Potemra ◽  
Niklas Schneider

Abstract The relationship between 3- and 10-yr variability in Indian Ocean temperatures and Indonesian throughflow (ITF) volume transport is examined using results from a 300-yr integration of the coupled NCAR Parallel Climate Model (PCM). Correlation and regression analyses are used with physical reasoning to estimate the relative contributions of changes in ITF volume transport and Indian Ocean surface atmospheric forcing in determining low-frequency temperature variations in the Indian Ocean. In the PCM, low-frequency variations in ITF transport are small, 2 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1), and have a minimal impact on sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Most of the low-frequency variance in Indian Ocean temperature (rms > 0.5°C) occurs in the upper thermocline (75–100 m). These variations largely reflect concurrent atmospheric forcing; ITF-induced temperature variability at this depth is limited to the outflow region between Java and Australia extending westward along a band between 10° and 15°S.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (13) ◽  
pp. 5017-5029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jules B. Kajtar ◽  
Agus Santoso ◽  
Matthew H. England ◽  
Wenju Cai

Abstract The Pacific and Indian Oceans are connected by an oceanic passage called the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF). In this setting, modes of climate variability over the two oceanic basins interact. El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events generate sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) over the Indian Ocean that, in turn, influence ENSO evolution. This raises the question as to whether Indo-Pacific feedback interactions would still occur in a climate system without an Indonesian Throughflow. This issue is investigated here for the first time using a coupled climate model with a blocked Indonesian gateway and a series of partially decoupled experiments in which air–sea interactions over each ocean basin are in turn suppressed. Closing the Indonesian Throughflow significantly alters the mean climate state over the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Pacific Ocean retains an ENSO-like variability, but it is shifted eastward. In contrast, the Indian Ocean dipole and the Indian Ocean basinwide mode both collapse into a single dominant and drastically transformed mode. While the relationship between ENSO and the altered Indian Ocean mode is weaker than that when the ITF is open, the decoupled experiments reveal a damping effect exerted between the two modes. Despite the weaker Indian Ocean SSTAs and the increased distance between these and the core of ENSO SSTAs, the interbasin interactions remain. This suggests that the atmospheric bridge is a robust element of the Indo-Pacific climate system, linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans even in the absence of an Indonesian Throughflow.


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 3545-3560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Watanabe

Abstract In this second of a two-part study, the two regimes in a simple tropical climate model identified in Part I are verified using a hybrid coupled general circulation model (HCM) that can reproduce the observed climatology and the interannual variability reasonably well. Defining a ratio of basin width between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, a series of parameter sweep experiments was conducted with idealized tropical land geometry. Consistent with the simple model, the HCM simulates two distinct states: the split warm pool regime with large vacillation between the two ocean basins and the single warm pool regime representing current climate. The former is suddenly switched to the latter as the Pacific becomes wider than the Indian Ocean. Furthermore, the vacillation in the split regime reveals a preferred transition route that the warm phase in the Pacific follows that in the Indian Ocean. This route occurs due to convectively coupled Kelvin waves that accompany precipitation anomalies over land. Additional experiments show that the inclusion of the idealized Eurasian continent stabilizes the split regime by reducing the Bjerknes feedback in the Indian Ocean, suggesting the atmosphere–ocean–land interaction at work in maintaining the observed warm pool. No difference in cloud feedback was found between two regimes; this feature may, however, be model dependent. Both the simple model and the HCM results suggest that the tropical atmosphere–ocean system inherently involves multiple solutions, which may have an implication on climate modeling as well as on the understanding of the observed mean climate.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Nuber ◽  
James Rae ◽  
Morten Andersen ◽  
Xu Zhang ◽  
Bas de Boer ◽  
...  

Abstract The Indian Ocean has been proposed as an important source of salt for North Atlantic deep-water convection sites, via the Agulhas Leakage, and may thus drive changes in the ocean’s overturning circulation. However, while past changes in Agulhas leakage volume have been explored, little is known about this water’s salt content, representing a major gap in our understanding of Agulhas salinity supply. Here, we present new planktonic foraminiferal Mg/Ca-derived sea surface temperatures (SST) and stable isotope-derived salinity reconstructions for the last 1.2Ma from the western Indian Ocean source waters of the Agulhas Leakage to investigate glacial-interglacial changes in surface water properties. We find that SST and relative salinity both increase during glaciation, leading to high salinity and SST during glacial maxima. We show that the onset of surface salinification and warming in the Indian Ocean occurs during a phase of rapid land-bridge exposure in the Indonesian archipelago induced by sea level lowering. We link these findings to new global climate model results which show that the export of salt from the Indian Ocean via the Agulhas Leakage can directly impact the deglacial Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and therefore global climate.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Wu ◽  
Xiaolong Chen ◽  
Fengfei Song ◽  
Yong Sun ◽  
Tianjun Zhou

Decadal prediction experiments are conducted by using the coupled global climate model FGOALS-s2, following the CMIP 5 protocol. The paper documents the initialization procedures for the decadal prediction experiments and summarizes the predictive skills of the experiments, which are assessed through indicators adopted by the IPCC AR5. The observational anomalies of surface and subsurface ocean temperature and salinity are assimilated through a modified incremental analysis update (IAU) scheme. Three sets of 10-year-long hindcast and forecast runs were started every five years in the period of 1960–2005, with the initial conditions taken from the assimilation runs. The decadal prediction experiment by FGOALS-s2 shows significant high predictive skills in the Indian Ocean, tropical western Pacific, and Atlantic, similar to the results of the CMIP5 multimodel ensemble. The predictive skills in the Indian Ocean and tropical western Pacific are primarily attributed to the model response to the external radiative forcing associated with the change of atmospheric compositions. In contrast, the high skills in the Atlantic are attributed, at least partly, to the improvements in the prediction of the Atlantic multidecadal variability coming from the initialization.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (22) ◽  
pp. 9077-9095 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Dong ◽  
Michael J. McPhaden

Abstract A striking trend of the Indian Ocean interhemispheric gradient in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) developed during the recent global warming hiatus. The contributions of external forcing and internal variability to this trend are examined in forced climate model experiments. Results indicate that the observed negative trend was strong by historical standards and most likely due to internal variability rather than to external forcing. Anthropogenic aerosol forcing favors negative gradient trends, but its effects are countered by greenhouse gas forcing, and both are weak relative to internal variability. The observed interhemispheric gradient trend occurred in parallel with a negative phase of the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO), a linkage that is also found in climate models. However, the physical mechanisms responsible for these gradient trends in models differ from those in ocean reanalysis products. In particular, oceanic processes via an increased Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) transport into the Indian Ocean forced by stronger Pacific trade winds are the principal cause of the observed negative SST gradient trend during 2000–13. In contrast, atmospheric processes via changing surface wind stress over the southern Indian Ocean remotely forced by the IPO appear to play a dominant role in changing the interhemispheric SST gradients in climate models. The models underestimate the magnitude of the IPO and produce changes in the ITF that are too weak owing to their coarse spatial resolution. These model deficiencies may account for the differences between the simulations and observations.


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