April 22, 2026 | 10:07 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Meteorologists, climatologists, and oceanographers often refer to the Indonesian archipelago as the Maritime Continent. It includes the island of Kalimantan, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippine archipelago, and Papua New Guinea. The term is used because the region lies between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Experts typically use the terms “continental” and “maritime” to describe two contrasting climate types. But when combined, the Maritime Continent represents the broad interaction between oceans and land across the region. Variations in rainfall driven by the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) are the result of that interaction.
ENSO is a recurring climate pattern involving changes in sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. The ENSO index rises when sea surface temperatures in those areas warm.
IOD, meanwhile, refers to the difference in sea surface temperatures between the western Indian Ocean, in the Arabian Sea, and the southeastern part, particularly off the western coast of Sumatra. A positive IOD means warmer waters in the west than in the southeast, while a negative IOD means the opposite.
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