Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures impact precipitation across the basin through coupled ocean‐atmosphere responses to changes in climate. To understand the hydroclimate response over the western Indian Ocean and equatorial east Africa to different forcing mechanisms, we present four new proxy reconstructions from core VM19‐193 (2.98°N, 51.47°E) that span the last 250 ky. Sub‐surface water temperatures (Sub‐T; TEX86) show strong precessional (23 ky) variability that is primarily influenced by maximum incoming solar radiation (insolation) during the Northern Hemisphere spring season, likely indicating that local insolation dominates the upper water column at this tropical location over time. Leaf waxes, on the other hand, reflect two different precipitation signals:
A step increase in annual precipitation over the eastern United States in the early 1970s commenced five decades of invigorated hydroclimate, with ongoing impacts on streamflow and water resources. Despite its far‐reaching impacts, the dynamical origin of this change is unknown. Here analyses of a century of atmospheric and oceanic data trace the dynamics to changes in the Indian Ocean. Increases in fall precipitation contribute most strongly to the step increase, and the associated mechanism is emergence of a pan‐Pacific atmospheric wave emanating from deep convection over the warming Indian Ocean. Documentation of this fall teleconnection draws attention to projected anthropogenic increases in tropical oceanic heat content and their potential impacts on hydroclimate of the midlatitudes.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10444627
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 47
- Issue:
- 17
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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