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| | | Indian Ocean Dipole |
Maintained by IOC
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| | The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is a climate mode that occurs interannually in the tropical parts of the Indian Ocean. A climate mode, or 'major oscillation' is a periodic, anamalous, radical change in standard ocean-atmosphere conditions and/or interactions. Probably the most famous example of a major oscillation in the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. The IOD was identified in 1999 by Professor Yamagata, Dr Saji and associates of the Climate Variations Program of Frontier Research System for Global Change, however, its occurrence can be traced through the coral record to the mid-Holocene period (the Holocene period dates from 11,000 years before present to present). During a positive IOD event, the sea-surface temperature (SST) drops in the southeastern part of the Indian Ocean: off the northern coast of Australia, the eastern coast of Japa and throughout Indonesia; while the SST rises in the western equatorial Indian Ocean: off the eastern coast of Africa, from the northern half of Madagascar to the northern edge of Somalia. Furthermore, convective patterns increase in the northern half of Africa, India and off the eastern coast of Africa. |  | | | | There is an analagous negative IOD - which is, in effect, the reversal of the positive IOD - complete with increased convective activity over Australia, Indonesia and Japan. |  | | | | Studying and monitoring the IOD will not only increase weather and climate forecasting capabilities in the Indian Ocean, it will contribute to general understanding of ocean-atmosphere dynamics and has the potential to provide new insight to the puzzle presented by current global climate variability. Images courtesy of A.Suryachandra Rao of the Institute for Global Change Research, Yokohama City, Japan | | | | |
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