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The sensitivity of the El Niño- Indian monsoon teleconnection to Maritime Continent cold SST anomalies
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  • Umakanth Uppara,
  • Benjamin G. M. Webber,
  • Manoj Joshi,
  • Turner Andrew George
Umakanth Uppara
University of East Anglia

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Benjamin G. M. Webber
University of East Anglia
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Manoj Joshi
University of East Anglia
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Turner Andrew George
University of Reading, UK
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Abstract

The study investigates how sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies surrounding the Maritime Continent (MC) modulate the impact of developing El Niño events on Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) rainfall. Using a climate model we find that the ISM rainfall response to tropical Pacific SST anomalies of eastern and central Pacific El Niño events is sensitive to the details of cold SST anomalies surrounding the MC. Furthermore, the remote rainfall responses to regions of SST anomalies do not combine linearly and depend strongly on gradients in the SST anomaly patterns. The cold SST anomalies around the MC have a significantly larger impact on the ISM response to eastern Pacific events than to central Pacific events. These results show the usefulness of idealised modelling experiments, which offer insights into the complex interactions of the ISM with modes of climate variability.