The behaviour of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans is by no means perfectly predictable, but we have some indications of quasi-periodic oscillations in parameters such as water temperature and rainfall. By contrast the Indian Ocean has been an almost complete enigma in this respect. Papers by Webster et al. and Saji et al. (pages 356 and 360 of this issue) now furnish evidence of some large-scale interactions between the ocean and atmosphere in the region, and indications of the climatic consequences. But how those regularities may influence or be influenced by other climatic phenomena is far from clear.
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