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The Indian Ocean plays critical roles in climate systems, material circulations, ecosystems, and their variability regionally and globally. They are often linked with biophysical phenomena that span a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, including, for example, diurnal cycling, intraseasonal disturbances, seasonal variations, interannual variations, and decadal to multi-decadal variations as well as secular trends under the global warming stress. In situ and remotely-sensed physical and biogeochemical observations using the Indian Ocean Observing System-2 (IndOOS-2) and other means are now accumulating high quality data, and research efforts with numerical models as well as analyses of comprehensive datasets are also being conducted, particularly under international projects such as the Second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2) and the Eastern/Western Indian Ocean Upwelling Research Initiative (EIOURI/WIOURI). To advance our understanding of these phenomena in the Indian Ocean, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies are essential; the former for deeper understanding of mechanisms and the latter for elucidating linkages between the physical and biogeochemical/ecological research realms. The objective of this session is to share our knowledge on and to advance our understanding of all facets of Indian Ocean variability. We invite papers on physical, biogeochemical and ecological aspects of the variability, as well as those related to atmosphere-ocean interactions, over the full spectrum of temporal and spatial scales. Discussions to facilitate mutual interactions among different research communities would also be expected and encouraged. Abstracts on related activities, such as capacity building, education, outreach, project development in the Indian Ocean, contributing to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and to IIOE-2/EIOURI/WIOURI are also welcome.