Variations in the Earth's climate over timescales of ar ound a decade are particularly visible to us, and therefore well studied, One feature whose existence is still controversial is the Atlantic dipole — during some years, the northern tropical waters appear to warm anomalously, while the southern waters cool. In other years the pattern is reversed, the whole thing oscillating on a timescale of about 10 years. This pattern of warming and cooling leads to floods and droughts in Africa and the Americas. A clear demonstration of the physics of the oscillation has been missing from the debate over its existence, but on page 516, Chang et al. weigh in with a convincing mathematical model of the ocean and atmosphere. Perhaps r apidprogress can now be made in explaining the decadal climate variability of the tropical Atlantic.
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