Indian Ocean Dipole influence on Indian summer monsoon and ENSO: A review

Abstract

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is one of the dominant modes of variability of the tropical Indian Ocean and it has been suggested to have a crucial role in the teleconnection between the Indian summer monsoon and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The main ideas at the base of the influence of the IOD on the ENSO-monsoon teleconnection include the possibility that it may strengthen summer rainfall over India, as well as the opposite, and also that it may produce a remote forcing on ENSO itself. In the future, the IOD is projected to increase in frequency and amplitude with mean conditions mimicking the characteristics of its positive phase. Still, state-of-the-art global climate models have large biases in representing the mean state and variability of both IOD and ISM, with potential consequences for their future projections. However, the characteristics of the IOD and ENSO are likely to continue in a future warmer world, with persistence of their linkage.