- Abstract
- The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) serves as an important oceanic teleconnection for Indo-Pacific climate, altering heat and buoyancy transport from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. Equatorial Pacific wind forcing transmitted through the ITF impacts interannual to interdecadal Indian Ocean thermocline depth and heat content, with implications for preconditioning Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events. Yet the modulation of Indian Ocean thermal properties at seasonal timescales is still highly uncertain. Here we synthesize coral δ18O records, instrumental indices (Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), Asian Monsoon), and simulated ocean variability (sea surface salinity (SSS), temperature, heat content) from state-of-the-art NEMO ocean model hindcasts to explore drivers of seasonal to multi-decadal variability. All coral sites are located within main ITF pathways and are influenced by monsoon-driven, buoyant South China Sea surface waters during boreal winter that obstruct surface ITF flow and reduce heat transport to the Indian Ocean. Makassar and Lombok Strait coral δ18O co-varies with simulated SSS and thermocline depth at the coral sites. Sensitivity experiments additionally indicate that both sites are dominantly influenced by wind variability at multi-decadal timescales, with contributions from buoyancy forcing occurring during periods of the late 20th century. Notably, the variability in these coral and model responses reveals sensitivity to phase changes in the IPO. These results collectively suggest that the paleoproxy records are capturing important features of regional hydrography and Indo-Pacific exchange. Such proxy-model comparison is critical for understanding the drivers of variability related to changes in ITF oceanic teleconnections over the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Presented by
- Sujata Murty
- Institution
- 1Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA; 2Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Other Affiliations
- 3GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany ;4National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand
- Keywords
- coral, d18O, paleoclimate, marine geochemistry, ocean model simluations, proxy-model synthesis