Role of Indian Ocean SST variability on the recent global warming hiatus

Previous studies have shown a slowdown in the warming rate of the annual mean global surface temperature in the recent decade and it is referred to as the hiatus in global warming. Some recent studies have suggested that the hiatus in global warming is possibly due to strong cooling in the tropical Pacific. This study investigates the possible role of the Indian Ocean warming on the tropical Pacific cooling. Despite the continued rise in sea surface temperature (SST) over the tropical Indian Ocean, SST over the tropical Pacific has shown a cooling trend in the recent decade (2002−2012). It is well known fact that the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are strongly coupled to each other and the Indian Ocean basin wide warming is triggered by El Niño on interannual time scale. However, in the recent decade, this relationship is weakening. The recent Indian Ocean warming is triggering a Matsuno-Gill type response in the atmosphere by generating anomalous cyclonic circulations on either side of equator over the tropical Indian Ocean and anomalous easterlies along the tropical Pacific Ocean. These anomalous easterlies result in Ekman divergence in the equatorial Pacific and produce upwelling Kelvin waves, cools the tropical Pacific and therefore indirectly contributes to the hiatus in global warming. •Strong teleconnections between IO and PO basins are weakening in late 90′s.•Indian Ocean is becoming active in recent decades.•Indian Ocean is forcing easterlies along the equatorial Pacific Ocean.•Active Indian Ocean is responsible for the recent hiatus in the Pacific Ocean.•SST forced AGCM experiments supports the proposed hypothesis.