by Chun Knee Tan on July 5, 2008 Keywords: climate systems, drought, El nino, flood, Indian Ocean Dipole, Indonesia, Kenya When a drought occurs in Indonesia, there could be flooding later in Kenya. But what are the linkages between these two disasters? The answer is a phenomenon discovered 10 years ago called Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). During normal conditions in the Indian Ocean, the sea surface temperature is warmer in the east and cooler in the west. When an Indian Ocean Dipole event occurs, the situation is reversed. Cooling of the eastern part of the Indian Ocean results in less convection and less rain. Consequently, we see a longer drought in western Indonesia during the summer and fall. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the Indian Ocean, the abnormal warming results in enhanced cloud formation, more rain and serious flooding in eastern Africa. Current research has revealed that this IOD effect not only alters weather patterns in the surrounding region, but als
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