Shifts in IOD and their impacts on association with East Africa rainfall

Abstract

The decadal shift in the relationship between the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the East African rainfall is investigated using historical observational data. The climate system for equatorial East Africa (EEA) during the October to December (OND) ‘short rains’ season is characterised by spatiotemporal variations of the equatorial East African rainfall (EEAR). Therefore, the EEAR index is derived from the first principal component of the empirical orthogonal function analysis (EOF) of the EEA’s rainfall domain. The IOD, which has been linked with the EEAR in the previous studies, is the main climate mode controlling the tropical Indian Ocean during the OND period. It is usually represented by a dipole mode index based on the zonal gradient of SST anomalies in the tropical Indian Ocean. Therefore the climate modes, IOD and EEAR, are assumed to form a two-node network of subsystems which primarily control the climate of equatorial East Africa during the OND period. The collective behaviour of these climate modes is investigated through the examination of their representative indices for the period 1901 to 2009 using simple statistical techniques. The results suggest that the interaction between these two climate modes, which comprise the network, is not predominantly linear as previously assumed, but is characterised by shifts which are determined by the coupling and synchronisation processes of the tropical systems. In cases where synchronisation is preceded by an abrupt increase in coupling strength between the two subsystems, the established synchronous state is destroyed and a new climate state emerges such as in the years 1961 and 1997. This alteration in the regional climate is accompanied by notable changes in the regional rainfall and IOD variations. But in those events where synchronisation is followed by a sudden loss in coupling strength, the climate state is not disturbed and no shift in the climate of equatorial East Africa is noticed as in 1918. This climate shift mechanism appears to be consistent with the theory of synchronised chaos and is useful for long range predictions of the East African short rains.