Ocean Dynamic Processes Responsible for the Interannual Variability of the Tropical Indian Ocean SST Associated with ENSO

Abstract

The interannual variability of the tropical Indian Ocean SST is investigated by analyzing the ocean assimilation data. It is significant that since 1970, ENSO events frequently followed the Indian Ocean Dipole event. The SST tendency due to the dynamical SST advections over the tropical Indian Ocean sufficiently overwhelms that due to other thermodynamic process during the fall and winter of ENSO. Especially, the strong cooling due to the anomalous vertical advection by the mean upwelling and the warming due to the horizontal advection are attributed to the cold SST during the fall and the warm SST during the winter, respectively. The significant warming between winter and spring over the southwestern Indian Ocean turns out to be due to the vertical advection of the mean subsurface temperature by the anomalous upwelling during the winter and the vertical advection of the anomalous subsurface temperature by the mean upwelling from winter to spring. We speculate that when the Indian Ocean Dipole events concurred with the ENSO, the surface wind is so strong enough as to generate the change in the SST dynamically and overwhelm the SST changes associated with other effects.