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 SE Australian winter rainfall. Analyses of sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface height (SSH), thermocline depth, wind, outgoing longwave radiation (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‐ocean coupling. Based on these analyses, a mechanism for SE Australian interannual winter rainfall variability is proposed.