Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
A unifying view of climate change in the Sahel linking intra-seasonal, interannual and longer time scales
Environmental Research Letters, Volume 8, No. 2, Article 024010, Year 2013
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
We propose a re-interpretation of the oceanic influence on the climate of the African Sahel that is consistent across observations, 20th century simulations and 21st century projections, and that resolves the uncertainty in projections of precipitation change in this region: continued warming of the global tropical oceans increases the threshold for convection, potentially drying tropical land, but this 'upped ante' can be met if sufficient moisture is supplied in monsoon flow. In this framework, the reversal to warming of the subtropical North Atlantic, which is now out-pacing warming of the global tropical oceans, provides that moisture, and explains the partial recovery in precipitation since persistent drought in the 1970s and 1980s. We find this recovery to result from increases in daily rainfall intensity, rather than in frequency, most evidently so in Senegal, the westernmost among the three Sahelian countries analyzed. Continuation of these observed trends is consistent with projections for an overall wetter Sahel, but more variable precipitation on all time scales, from intra-seasonal to multi-decadal. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Authors & Co-Authors
Giannini, Alessandra
United States, Palisades
International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Salack, Seyni
Senegal, Dakar
Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar
Senegal
Centre D’etude Régional Pour L’amélioration de L’adaptation à la Sécheresse
Niger, Niamey
Agrhymet Regional Centre
Lodoun, Tiganadaba
Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou
Institut de L'environnement et de Recherches Agricoles Ouagadougou
Ali, Abdou
Niger, Niamey
Agrhymet Regional Centre
Gaye, Amadou Thierno
Senegal, Dakar
Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar
N’diaye, Ousmane
Senegal
Agence Nationale de L'avion Civile et de la Météorologie du Sénégal
Statistics
Citations: 170
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 6
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024010
e-ISSN:
17489326
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Locations
Senegal