The warm pool in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

The structure of the warm pool (region with temperature greater than 28 degrees C) in the equatorial Indian Ocean is examined and compared with its counterpart in the Pacific Ocean using the climatology of Levitus. Though the Pacific warm pool is larger and warmer, a peculiarity of the pool in the Indian Ocean is its seasonal variation. The surface area of the pool changes from 24 x 106 km2 in April to 8 x 106 km2 in September due to interaction with the southwest monsoon. The annual cycles of sea surface temperature at locations coverEd. by the pool during at least a part of the year show the following modes: (1) a cycle with no significant variation (observed in the western equatorial Pacific and central and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean), (ii) a single maximum/minimum (northern and southern part of the Pacific warm pool and the south Indian Ocean), (iii) two maxima/minima (Arabian Sea, western equatorial Indian Ocean and Southern Bay of Bengal), and (iv) a rapid rise, a steady phase and a rapid fall (Northern Bay of Bengal).