Asymmetry of the Indian Ocean dipole. Part I: Observational analysis

The physical mechanism for the amplitude asymmetry of SST anomalies (SSTA) between the positive and negative phases of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) is investigated, using Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) and NCAR-NCEP data. It is found that a strong negative skewness appears in the IOD east pole (IODE) in the mature phase [September-November (SON)], while the skewness in the IOD west pole is insignificant. Thus, the IOD asymmetry is primarily caused by the negative skewness in IODE. A mixed-layer heat budget analysis indicates that the following two air-sea feedback processes are responsible for the negative skewness. The first is attributed to the asymmetry of the wind stress-ocean advection-SST feedback. During the IOD developing stage [June-September (JJAS)], the ocean linear advection tends to enhance the mixed-layer temperature tendency, while nonlinear advection tends to cool the ocean in both the positive and negative events, thus contributing to the negative skewness in IODE. The second process is attributed to the asymmetry of the SST-cloud-radiation (SCR) feedback. For a positive IODE, the negative SCR feedback continues with the increase of warm SSTA. For a negative IODE, the same negative SCR feedback works when the amplitude of SSTA is small. After reaching a critical value, the cold SSTA may completely suppress the mean convection and lead to cloud free conditions; a further drop of the cold SSTA does not lead to additional thermal damping so that the cold SSTA may grow faster. A wind-evaporation-SST feedback may further amplify the asymmetry induced by the aforementioned nonlinear advection and SCR feedback processes.