Impacts of the Indian summer monsoon on the Antarctic climate and sea ice

In recent decades, Antarctica has experienced significant climate change, with previous studies predominantly focusing on the impact of oceanic multiscale variability on Antarctica, especially West Antarctica. However, our research reveals that Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall significantly affects the austral winter (June–August) Antarctic climate and sea ice through atmospheric teleconnection. The diabatic heating of ISM rainfall causes northward movement of the Hadley cell, triggering a Rossby wave train that propagates from the southern Indian Ocean into Antarctica, which changes sea level pressure and introduces warm advection to East and West Antarctica, causing widespread warming across the Antarctic continent. Under the influence of surface wind stress and temperature advection, the sea ice in the Ross Sea-Amundsen Sea exhibits a dipole distribution, characterized by an increase in the Ross Sea and a decrease in the Amundsen Sea. Our findings have significant implications for climate change research in Antarctica, particularly East Antarctica.