Evolution of the relationship between near global and Atlantic SST modes and the rainy season in West Africa: statistical analyses and sensitivity experiments |
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Authors: | B Fontaine S Trzaska S Janicot |
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Institution: | (1) CNRS, MERT, Centre de Recherches de Climatologie, CNRS Faculté des Sciences Gabriel, B.P. 138, F-21004 Dijon Cedex, France E-mail: fontaine@u-bourgogne.fr, FR;(2) Météo-France, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, CNRS Ecole Polytechnique, Route départementale 36, F-91128 Palaiseau, Cedex, France, FR |
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Abstract: | Monthly sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) at near-global scale (60 °N–40 °S) and May to October rainfall amounts in
West Africa (16 °N–5 °N; 16 °W–16 °E) are first used to investigate the seasonal and interannual evolutions of their relationship.
It is shown that West African rainfall variability is associated with two types of oceanic changes: (1) a large-scale evolution
involving the two largest SSTA leading eigenmodes (16% of the total variance with stronger loadings in the equatorial and
southern oceans) related to the long-term (multiannual) component of rainfall variability mainly expressed in the Sudan–Sahel
region; and (2) a regional and seasonally coupled evolution of the meridional thermal gradient in the tropical Atlantic due
to the linear combination of the two largest SSTA modes in the Atlantic (11% with strong inverse loadings over the northern
and southern tropics) which is associated with the interannual and quasi-decadal components of regional rainfall in West Africa.
Linear regression and discriminant analyses provide evidence that the main July–September rainfall anomalies in Sudan–Sahel
can be detected with rather good skills using the leading (April–June) or synchronous (July–September) values of the four
main oceanic modes. In particular, the driest conditions over Sahel, more marked since the beginning of the 1970s, are specifically
linked to the warm phases of the two global modes and to cold/warm anomalies in the northern/southern tropical Atlantic. Idealized
but realistic SSTA patterns, obtained from some basic linear combinations of the four main oceanic modes appear sufficient
to generate quickly (from mid-July to the end of August) significant West African rainfall anomalies in model experiments,
consistent with the statistical results. The recent negative impact on West African rainfall exerted by the global oceanic
forcing is primarily due to the generation of subsidence anomalies in the mid-troposphere over West Africa. When an idealized
north to south SSTA gradient is added in the tropical Atlantic, strong north to south height gradients in the middle levels
appear. These limit the northward excursion of the rainbelt in West Africa: the Sahelian area experiences drier conditions
due to the additive effect (subsidence anomalies+latitudinal blocking) while over the Guinea regions wet conditions do not
significantly increase, since the subsidence anomalies and the blocking effect act here in opposite ways.
Received: 26 June 1997 / Accepted: 3 October 1997 |
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