673846 event 1711733817 1711733998 The Indian Ocean (IO) has an Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) south of the equator year-round, in contrast to the northern ITCZs in the Pacific and Atlantic. The southern IO ITCZ defies all existing theories concerning the ITCZ hemispheric asymmetries. In this talk, I will first share our recent work on the origin of the southern IO ITCZ, with a focus on how atmospheric dynamics drive this intriguing ITCZ given observed distribution of sea surface temperatures. Second, I will talk about precipitation biases in the broad Indo-Pacific region in climate models and show that precipitation biases are not simply caused by deficiencies in model parameterizations, as previously thought, but are also strongly regulated by atmospheric circulation. 

]]> The Indian Ocean (IO) has an Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) south of the equator year-round, in contrast to the northern ITCZs in the Pacific and Atlantic. The southern IO ITCZ defies all existing theories concerning the ITCZ hemispheric asymmetries. In this talk, I will first share our recent work on the origin of the southern IO ITCZ, with a focus on how atmospheric dynamics drive this intriguing ITCZ given observed distribution of sea surface temperatures. Second, I will talk about precipitation biases in the broad Indo-Pacific region in climate models and show that precipitation biases are not simply caused by deficiencies in model parameterizations, as previously thought, but are also strongly regulated by atmospheric circulation. 

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