The Relationship between the Interannual Variation of the North Indian Ocean SST Induced by Surface Wind and ENSO during Boreal Summer

Abstract

Abstract The relationship between the interannual variation of the surface wind in the north Indian Ocean (0°–30°N, 30°–100°E) and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during boreal summer is investigated. The association of the surface wind with the sea surface temperature (SST) in the north Indian Ocean is evaluated. The NCEP–NCAR reanalysis, NOAA outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and Reynolds SST data are used. The June–August mean of the surface wind anomaly over the north Indian Ocean is decomposed by EOF analysis, and two dominant modes are extracted. The first (second) mode shows the corresponding variation with the ENSO events maturing in the subsequent (previous) winter. The first mode has a large amplitude during the 1990s, while the amplitude of the second mode is large mainly during the 1980s. Such contrast of the amplitude of the two modes results in the temporal change of the surface wind–ENSO relationships between the two decades. The temporal characteristics of the first and second modes are consistent with those of convective variability in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Philippine Sea, respectively. The local thermal forcings associated with these two contrastive modes are compared with the time change of the SST anomaly. The thermal forcings are evaluated in terms of the latent heat flux and the Ekman heat transport. The thermal forcing of the first mode is consistent with a meridionally antisymmetric pattern of the SST anomaly during the 1990s, while that of the second mode is correlated with the basinwide SST anomaly during the 1980s. This result suggests that the temporal change is also found in the north Indian Ocean SST anomaly.