Sea Day to Thursday Island - Day 63

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What Is the Indian Ocean
Dipole?
There is no more dramatic illustration of the relationship between the world's oceans and its land masses than the weather patterns created by sea surface temperature. Residents of North America are familiar with the heavy precipitation and drought effects of the El Niño and La Niña phenomena in the Pacific Ocean. Similarly, the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) has a dramatic impact on both Indonesia and Australia.
The IOD is an irregular cycle of warmer and colder sea-surface temperatures that periodically oscillates throughout this massive body of water.
Scientists have observed that surface temperatures exhibit three phases. The neutral phase is the ocean's more balanced state, when thermometer readings are normal. An average and predictable rainfall coming off the ocean helps crops flourish and land is easily managed. The two other phases create extreme conditions that can be harmful. In the positive phase, warmer sea temperatures in the western region of the Indian Ocean create more rainfall in East Africa while cooler temperatures in the east may cause droughts in
Australia and Southeast Asia. The negative phase creates opposite conditions-warm waters and more rainfall in the east and cooler waters with less rain in the west.
Coral samples have allowed contemporary scientists to trace the occurrence of IODs all the way back to 1846. Historically, about four positive and four negative IOD events transpire over each 30-year period, each lasting about six months.
However, positive IODs have become more frequent since 1980, inserting the Indian Ocean Dipole into the debates over climate change. We are going between the Indian and Pacific Ocean.Leer más