Two flavors of the Indian Ocean Dipole

Abstract

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is known as a climate mode in the tropical Indian Ocean accompanied by negative (positive) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the eastern (western) pole during its positive phase. However, the western pole of the IOD is not always covered totally by positive SST anomalies. For this reason, the IOD is further classified into two types in this study based on SST anomalies in the western pole. The first type (hereafter “canonical IOD”) is associated with negative (positive) SST anomalies in the eastern (central to western) tropical Indian Ocean. The second type (hereafter “IOD Modoki”), on the other hand, is associated with negative SST anomalies in the eastern and western tropical Indian Ocean and positive SST anomalies in the central tropical Indian Ocean. Based on composite analyses, it is found that easterly wind anomalies cover the whole equatorial Indian Ocean in the canonical IOD, and as a result, positive rainfall anomalies are observed over East Africa. Also, due to the basin-wide easterly wind anomalies, the canonical IOD is accompanied by strong sea surface height (SSH) anomalies. In contrast, zonal wind anomalies converge in the central tropical Indian Ocean in the IOD Modoki, and no significant precipitation anomalies are found over East Africa. Also, only weak SSH anomalies are seen, because equatorial downwelling anomalies induced by westerly wind anomalies in the west are counteracted by equatorial upwelling anomalies caused by easterly wind anomalies in the east.