Evan Weller

Increased frequency of extreme Indian Ocean Dipole events due to greenhouse warming

The Indian Ocean dipole is a prominent mode of coupled ocean–atmosphere variability, affecting the lives of millions of people in Indian Ocean rim countries. In its positive phase, sea surface temperatures are lower than normal off the Sumatra–Java coast, but higher in the western tropical Indian Ocean. During the extreme positive-IOD (pIOD) events of 1961, 1994 and 1997, the eastern cooling strengthened and extended westward along the equatorial Indian Ocean through strong reversal of both the mean westerly winds and the associated eastward-flowing upper ocean currents. This created anomalously dry conditions from the eastern to the central Indian Ocean along the Equator and atmospheric convergence farther west, leading to catastrophic floods in eastern tropical African countries but devastating droughts in eastern Indian Ocean rim countries. Despite these serious consequences, the response of pIOD events to greenhouse warming is unknown. Here, using an ensemble of climate models forced by a scenario of high greenhouse gas emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5), we project that the frequency of extreme pIOD events will increase by almost a factor of three, from one event every 17.3u2009years over the twentieth century to one event every 6.3u2009years over the twenty-first century. We find that a mean state change—with weakening of both equatorial westerly winds and eastward oceanic currents in association with a faster warming in the western than the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean—facilitates more frequent occurrences of wind and oceanic current reversal. This leads to more frequent extreme pIOD events, suggesting an increasing frequency of extreme climate and weather events in regions affected by the pIOD.

The reversal of the multi-decadal trends of the equatorial Pacific easterly winds, and the Indonesian Throughflow and Leeuwin Current transports

Multi-decadal weakening trend of the equatorial Pacific easterly winds since 1960 has reversed after 1993. The trend reversal has induced cooling (shallow thermocline) trend in the equatorial western Pacific before 1993, followed by a warming (deep thermocline) trend from n1993 to the present. All available atmospheric reanalysis products corroborate the trend reversal during the two multi-decadal periods. The magnitudes of the multi-decadal trends of the easterly winds, however, differ among the reanalysis products. The trend reversals of regional ocean circulations are assessed using linear regressions between wind and transport anomalies in an eddy-permitting numerical model, suggesting that since 1993 the Indonesian nThroughflow and the Leeuwin Current transports have also reversed their multi-decadal weakening trends. nKey Points: n- There have been reversals of the multi-decadal weakening trends of trade winds n- Different reanalysis products capture different trends in trade winds

Influence of Climate Variability on Extreme Ocean Surface Wave Heights Assessed from ERA-Interim and ERA-20C

AbstractExtreme ocean surface wave heights significantly affect coastal structures and offshore activities and impact many vulnerable populations of low-lying islands. Therefore, better understanding of ocean wave height variability plays an important role in potentially reducing risk in such regions. In this study, global impacts of natural climate variability such as El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) on extreme significant wave height (SWH) are analyzed using ERA-Interim (1980–2014) and ECMWF twentieth-century reanalysis (ERA-20C; 1952–2010) datasets for December–February (DJF). The nonstationary generalized extreme value (GEV) analysis is used to determine the influence of natural climate variability on DJF maxima of SWH (Hmax), wind speed (Wmax), and mean sea level pressure gradient amplitude (Gmax). The major ENSO influence on Hmax is found over the northeastern North Pacific (NP), with increases during El Nino and decreases d...

Meridional variability of atmospheric convection associated with the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode

The Indian Ocean Dipole Mode (IODM) impacts many surrounding and remote regions of the Indian Ocean, with devastating floods over East Africa but severe droughts in countries surrounding Indonesia during a positive IODM event. Understanding the dynamics is important for seasonal prediction and climate projections, but the role of meridional temperature and circulation anomalies remains unclear. Here, we show that in combination with the zonal structure of temperature and rainfall anomalies, northward contraction of the warm water pool over the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean region (EEIO) also generates an anomalous meridional cross-equatorial temperature gradient in the east. This meridional temperature gradient controls northward retreat of the atmospheric convection in association with northward cross-equatorial winds, and hence declining rainfall over the EEIO. Our results have important implications for the mean state change under greenhouse warming.

Human-caused Indo-Pacific warm pool expansion.

The recent observed expansion of the Indo-Pacific warm pool is robustly attributed to anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases. The Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP) has warmed and grown substantially during the past century. The IPWP is Earth’s largest region of warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs), has the highest rainfall, and is fundamental to global atmospheric circulation and hydrological cycle. The region has also experienced the world’s highest rates of sea-level rise in recent decades, indicating large increases in ocean heat content and leading to substantial impacts on small island states in the region. Previous studies have considered mechanisms for the basin-scale ocean warming, but not the causes of the observed IPWP expansion, where expansion in the Indian Ocean has far exceeded that in the Pacific Ocean. We identify human and natural contributions to the observed IPWP changes since the 1950s by comparing observations with climate model simulations using an optimal fingerprinting technique. Greenhouse gas forcing is found to be the dominant cause of the observed increases in IPWP intensity and size, whereas natural fluctuations associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have played a smaller yet significant role. Further, we show that the shape and impact of human-induced IPWP growth could be asymmetric between the Indian and Pacific basins, the causes of which remain uncertain. Human-induced changes in the IPWP have important implications for understanding and projecting related changes in monsoonal rainfall, and frequency or intensity of tropical storms, which have profound socioeconomic consequences.

More-frequent extreme northward shifts of eastern Indian Ocean tropical convergence under greenhouse warming.

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean exhibits strong interannual variability, often co-occurring with positive Indian Ocean Dipole (pIOD) events. During what we identify as an extreme ITCZ event, a drastic northward shift of atmospheric convection coincides with an anomalously strong north-minus-south sea surface temperature (SST) gradient over the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. Such shifts lead to severe droughts over the maritime continent and surrounding islands but also devastating floods in southern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Understanding future changes of the ITCZ is therefore of major scientific and socioeconomic interest. Here we find a more-than-doubling in the frequency of extreme ITCZ events under greenhouse warming, estimated from climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 that are able to simulate such events. The increase is due to a mean state change with an enhanced north-minus-south SST gradient and a weakened Walker Circulation, facilitating smaller perturbations to shift the ITCZ northwards.

Differentiating flavors of the Indian Ocean Dipole using dominant modes in tropical Indian Ocean rainfall

Phase locked to austral winter and spring, canonical positive Indian Ocean Dipoles (pIODs) generally peak in spring. In recent decades, there has been an increase in unseasonable pIODs which, different from canonical pIODs, peak and decay by September. Distinguishing unseasonable pIODs from canonical pIODs is important, as conditions leading to more frequent unseasonable events are projected to persist in a warming climate. Here using superimposition of the first two seasonally evolving dominant modes of tropical Indian Ocean rainfall variability, we differentiate these types of pIODs. The first mode reflects characteristics of canonical pIODs, in which anomalies intensify with seasonal evolution. However, the second mode, with cool and dry anomalies extending from the eastern pole, reverses from winter to spring, signifying the demise of unseasonable pIODs. Processes embedded in the second mode reflect timing of propagation in equatorial Kelvin waves and their relative importance to the first mode, in generating different pIODs.

Multi-model attribution of upper-ocean temperature changes using an isothermal approach.

Both air-sea heat exchanges and changes in ocean advection have contributed to observed upper-ocean warming most evident in the late-twentieth century. However, it is predominantly via changes in air-sea heat fluxes that human-induced climate forcings, such as increasing greenhouse gases, and other natural factors such as volcanic aerosols, have influenced global ocean heat content. The present study builds on previous work using two different indicators of upper-ocean temperature changes for the detection of both anthropogenic and natural external climate forcings. Using simulations from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, we compare mean temperatures above a fixed isotherm with the more widely adopted approach of using a fixed depth. We present the first multi-model ensemble detection and attribution analysis using the fixed isotherm approach to robustly detect both anthropogenic and natural external influences on upper-ocean temperatures. Although contributions from multidecadal natural variability cannot be fully removed, both the large multi-model ensemble size and properties of the isotherm analysis reduce internal variability of the ocean, resulting in better observation-model comparison of temperature changes since the 1950s. We further show that the high temporal resolution afforded by the isotherm analysis is required to detect natural external influences such as volcanic cooling events in the upper-ocean because the radiative effect of volcanic forcings is short-lived.