Tropical ocean-atmosphere interactions exert a significant impact on regional and global climate on a broad range of spatio-temporal scales. Since the 1980s, in-situ and satellite observations, reanalysis products, and advancements in climate modeling have facilitated the analysis of various aspects of variability in the tropical ocean basins. This includes variability patterns on intraseasonal (e.g., MJO), interannual (e.g., ENSO, IOD, and Atlantic Nino) and decadal (e.g., IPO) timescales, and their linkages with tropical (e.g., monsoons) and extratropical (e.g., storm track) climate. Recent studies have revealed new aspects of tropical ocean-atmosphere interaction, such as the role of salinity and its influence on tropical cyclone intensification. Others have highlighted the coupling among the tropical Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic, and its role in seasonal prediction of the Asian summer monsoon and decadal ocean variability such as the so-called global warming "hiatus". Long-term change in the Pacific Walker circulation has been recapturing attention because it is intricately linked to the fate of ENSO under global warming. Moreover, changes in the Walker circulation can alter the regional patterns of climate change and thereby modulate climate feedbacks and the sensitivity to radiative forcing.
Climate, its variability, and its long-term change under global warming are shaped by a variety of processes that are mutually interrelated. To examine these challenging issues from various perspectives and foster understanding of the role of tropical ocean-atmosphere interaction in the climate system, this session offers a forum to discuss recent progress in observational, modeling and theoretical studies of multi-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction in the tropics.