Interrelationship between Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Australian Tropical Cyclones

Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) index plays an important role in shaping the weather conditions in the Indian Ocean and surrounding areas. It has a strong correlation with Darwin pressure. This paper attempts to unfold its relationship with the occurrence of Tropical Cyclones (TCs) in the Australian basin. An analysis of 30 years' data (1976-2006) reveals that individual IOD pole (Western or Eastern) has peak negative correlation (-.5 and -.4, respectively) with the seasonal occurrences of TCs in Australia. Mainly the TC occurrences in Western and Eastern sub-regions are correlated with IOD index of both the poles. Northern sub-region is more or less free from the influence of IOD index. These findings provide further insight in understanding the genesis of tropical cyclones in the Australian region.