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According to a study, scientists now have a better understanding of how the Indian Ocean dipole first developed, which aids in their ability to anticipate and comprehend how climate change may affect it. According to the study, this complementary weather phenomenon can cause sea water temperatures on one side of the Indian Ocean to be significantly warmer or colder than those on the other, which can result in sometimes fatal weather-related events like megadroughts in East Africa and severe flooding in Indonesia. A global team of scientists led by Brown University in the US produced the new analysis, which uses long-term climate data. The investigation compares simulations from a sophisticated climate model to reconstructions of 10,000 years of past climate conditions from various sets of geological evidence. This extreme weather pattern, known as a dipole, prompts one side, either east or west, to have higher-than-average rainfall and the other to have a widespread drought. The study said that the researchers saw examples of this pattern in the historical data they studied and the model's simulation. The scientists noted that the findings could help scientists not only better understand the mechanisms behind the east-west dipole in the Indian Ocean, but could one day help to produce more effective forecasts of drought and flood in the region.