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A re-interpretation of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean o n the climate of the Sahel

A re-interpretation of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean o n the climate of the Sahel Atlantic sector climate variability over the last m illennium a nd the near-term future Wednesday, October 17, 2012, Lamont hall Alessandra Giannini, IRI alesall@iri.columbia.edu.

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A re-interpretation of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean o n the climate of the Sahel

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  1. A re-interpretation of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean on the climate of the Sahel Atlantic sector climate variability over the last millennium and the near-term future Wednesday, October 17, 2012, Lamont hall Alessandra Giannini, IRI alesall@iri.columbia.edu

  2. The canonical view on the influence of the Atlantic Ocean on the West African monsoon Zeng, Science 2003

  3. Giannini, A, R Saravanan, P Chang, 2005 in Clim. Dyn. Variability in Sahel rainfall – the West African monsoon (25% in obs, 21% in ens-mean)

  4. Giannini, A, R Saravanan, P Chang, 2003 in Science Variability in Sahel rainfall: separation of interdecadal and interannual time scales

  5. Variability in Gulf of Guinea rainfall – linked to the oceanic ITCZ (15% in obs, 32% in ens-mean) Giannini, A, R Saravanan, P Chang, 2005 in Clim. Dyn.

  6. The relative roles of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans green – Sahel rainfall blue – north Atlantic SST (minus global mean) red – equatorial Indian Ocean SST (with sign reversed)

  7. Models say that IF the subtropical North Atlantic warms up more than the global tropics, then the Sahel could get wetter… Past Green: end 20th century – pre-Industrial Blue: end – beginning 20th century Future Yellow: mid-21st (A1B) – end 20th Red: end 21st – end 20th

  8. A re-interpretation… • We need to consider all ocean basins simultaneously, • rather than independently, • look at relative changes between basins. • Global tropical oceans set the threshold for convection • Local ocean [in the case of the Sahel, the Atlantic] • provides the moisture to meet the threshold Zeng, Science 2003

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