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Modeling the impact of changes in Atlantic sea surface temperature on the climate of West Africa

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Abstract

This study assesses the impacts of warming/cooling of the Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) on the climate of West Africa using Version 4.4 of Regional Climate Model (RegCM4.4) of International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. The 1–2 K cooling and warming of the Atlantic SST both result in tripole temperature and precipitation change structure, having a northwest–southeast orientation over West Africa. Findings reveal that the responses of precipitation and temperature to the Atlantic SST cooling are opposite to those for the Atlantic SST warming and these responses intensify with increased warming/cooling of the Atlantic SST. The structure of the change in climate is attributed to the response of atmospheric/soil moisture gradient and orientation of orography in West Africa.

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Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the Earth System Section of the ICTP at Trieste in Italy, for making RegCM4.4 available for usage in this investigation. The GPCP daily precipitation data set used for validation is retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/gpcp-daily-global-precipitation-climatology-project. The CRU temperature (TS3.10) data set was made available by the BADC on behalf of the Cliimate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia. The EIN15 reanalysis data are extracted from the ECMWF NCEP Reanalysis data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd).

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  1. Department of Physics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Mojisola O. Adeniyi

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Adeniyi, M.O. Modeling the impact of changes in Atlantic sea surface temperature on the climate of West Africa. Meteorol Atmos Phys 129, 187–210 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-016-0473-x

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