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Climatology

Extremes in the Indian Ocean

Nature volume 401, pages 337–338 (1999)Cite this article

The behaviour of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans is by no means perfectly predictable, but we have some indications of quasi-periodic oscillations in parameters such as water temperature and rainfall. By contrast the Indian Ocean has been an almost complete enigma in this respect. Papers by Webster et al.1 and Saji et al.2 (pages 356 and 360 of this issue) now furnish evidence of some large-scale interactions between the ocean and atmosphere in the region, and indications of the climatic consequences. But how those regularities may influence or be influenced by other climatic phenomena is far from clear.

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Figure 1: Vertical section of the anomalous temperatures along the Equator in the Indian Ocean (left) and Pacific Ocean (right) at the end of October 1997.

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  1. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Shinfield Park, Reading, RG2 9AX, UK

    David Anderson

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  1. David Anderson
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Correspondence to David Anderson.

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Anderson, D. Extremes in the Indian Ocean. Nature 401, 337–338 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/43807

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