Rapid 21st Century Warming in the Southern Subtropical Indian Ocean Driven by Altered Inter‐Basin Connections

Abstract

The Indian Ocean has been warming rapidly over the last few decades. However, this warming has not been uniform, with the southern subtropical Indian Ocean (STIO, 15°S–35°S) cooling until the late 20th century and then warming abruptly. We show that the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) into the Indian Ocean exhibits strong decadal variability with a weaker negative trend over the recent decades, and hence cannot explain the continued heat gain by the upper ocean of the STIO at a rate of 0.41 (± 0.02) × 10 22 J/decade. An increased ITF during the hiatus in global surface warming initiated the STIO warming, resulting in a weaker Mascarene high and its decoupling from the Southern Ocean atmospheric variability. This enhanced Tasman inflow into the Indian Ocean and weakened Agulhas outflow offsetting the recently weakened ITF, caused a positive feedback that continued to warm the upper ocean of the STIO.

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