Multi-decadal variations of the South Indian Ocean subsurface temperature influenced by Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Xiaobing Zhou; Oscar Alves; Simon J. Marsland; Daohua Bi; Anthony C. Hirst

doi:10.1080/16000870.2017.1308055

Multi-decadal variations of the South Indian Ocean subsurface temperature influenced by Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Tellus

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1

By: Xiaobing Zhou, Oscar Alves, Simon J. Marsland, Daohua Bi and Anthony C. Hirst

Open Access

|Jan 2017

Abstract

Over recent decades, a strong subsurface cooling trend in the South Indian Ocean (SIO) occurred, despite a continuous sea surface warming. Previous studies suggest this long-term (around 1960–2000) cooling trend is mainly driven by remote Pacific atmospheric forcing or local Indian Ocean (IO) forcing. This study reveals that the dominant driver of the SIO subsurface cooling trend in different periods is closely related to the phase of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Our results suggest that the local IO wind forcing is responsible for the majority of the subsurface cooling trend and overwhelms a weak warming trend induced by the remote tropical Pacific wind forcing during the negative-phase period of PDO during 1960–76. However, this situation reverses during the PDO positive-phase period during 1977–98. Our analysis suggests that the PDO strengthens/weakens the tropical Pacific trade winds during negative/positive phase periods. Furthermore, the multi-decadal variations in the western Pacific induced by PDO impact the SIO subsurface temperature via baroclinic Rossby waves.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16000870.2017.1308055 | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 1308055 - 1308055

Submitted on: Jan 23, 2017

Accepted on: Mar 14, 2017

Published on: Jan 1, 2017

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

South Indian Ocean,

multi-decadal variations,

Pacific Decadal Oscillation

© 2017 Xiaobing Zhou, Oscar Alves, Simon J. Marsland, Daohua Bi, Anthony C. Hirst, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1