Lag Correlation: RSSTA Warming In Response to Maritime Continent Cooling
Below are a series of plots of the correlation coefficient between Relative Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies (RSSTA)* at each gridpoint and Maritime Continent surface temperature anomalies (10S-10N, 90E-150E, green box in plot) at a number of different lags during the 10-years of the 150 Tg US-Russia nuclear war simulation. The lag represents the lag of the RSSTA response to the Maritime Continent surface temperature anomalies.
*RSSTAs are calculated by subtracting the mean tropical SSTAs (20S-20N) in all locations. Code in NuclearNino/19Coupe/Response2Review.py
There is a clear positive correlation in the western equatorial Pacific and a negative correlation in the eastern equatorial Pacific at all lags. This is consistent with RSSTs warming in response to a colder Maritime Continent.

150 Tg +0 months
150 Tg +1 months
150 Tg +3 months
150 Tg +6 months
150 Tg +12 months

It is worth noting that there are similar correlations when using the CESM-WACCM4 control run. It is not unusual for contrasting temperature anomalies in the western and eastern Pacific even under normal conditions.

Control +0 months
Control +1 months
Control +3 months
Control +6 months
Control +12 months