Variability in the tropical southeast Indian Ocean and links with southeast Australian winter rainfall.

Variability in the southeast (SE) Indian Ocean is examined in relation to S E Australian winter rainfall. Analyses of sea surface temperature (SST), se a surface height (SSH), thermocline depth, wind, outgoing longwave radiatio n (OLR) and moisture flux data suggest, firstly, that SE Australian winter rainfall is influenced by SST in the tropical SE Indian Ocean and, secondly , that SST anomalies in this region are associated with local atmosphere-oc ean coupling. Based on these analyses, a mechanism for SE Australian intera nnual winter rainfall variability is proposed.