Fig. 2: See-saw pattern and associated circulation.

The plot of correlation (>90% significance; see methods section) of intraseasonal equivalent water depth over the Maritime Continent at 117.94°E, 15.02°S (yellow star) with respect to the intraseasonal equivalent water depth at all grid locations derived from a control run and b MC-EXP. c The percentage of intraseasonal equivalent water depth variance in the control run explained by MC-EXP. The black box in b represents the extent of wind forcing in MC-EXP. The variance captured is calculated using the equation,\(\,1-\left(\frac{{{\mathrm{variance}}}\left(A-B\right)}{{{\mathrm{variance}}}\left(A\right)}\right)\), where A represents the control run and B denotes MC-EXP. d The schematic illustration of the intraseasonal barotropic circulation during a positive cycle of a see-saw event. The red (blue) tinge in the Indian (Pacific) Ocean represents a basin-wide rise (fall) in intraseasonal equivalent water depth. The green lines define the boundaries of the Indian and the Pacific basins across which volume fluxes are estimated in a and b. The mean intraseasonal equivalent water depth difference between the area covered by red and the blue tinge in the Indian and the Pacific basin is used to define the See-saw Index. t_IO and t_PO represent the delay in the intraseasonal transport with respect to the intraseasonal transport across the Indonesian straits. Gray shades represent the bathymetry.