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Climate change

Tropical flip-flop connections

A long climatic record shows that episodic wet periods in northeastern Brazil are linked to distant climate anomalies. The ocean–atmosphere system can evidently undergo rapid and global reorganization.

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Figure 1: Determinants of present-day drought years in northeastern Brazil.

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Chiang, J., Koutavas, A. Tropical flip-flop connections. Nature 432, 684–685 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/432684a

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