Atlantic control of the late nineteenth-century Sahel humid period
Precipitation regime shifts in the Sahel region have dramatic humanitarian and economic consequences such as the severe droughts during the 1970s and 1980s. Though Sahel precipitation changes during the late twentieth century have been extensively studied, little is known about the decadal variabili...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2018 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repositorio: | Docta Complutense |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/12271 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/12271 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 550.3 Sea-surface temperature West-African monsoon Rainfall variability North-Atlantic Decadal prediction 20th-Century Simulations Dynamics Model Climate Precipitation Sea surface temperature Atmosphere-ocean interaction Climate models Decadal variability Multidecadal variability Geofísica Meteorología (Física) 2507 Geofísica |
| Sumario: | Precipitation regime shifts in the Sahel region have dramatic humanitarian and economic consequences such as the severe droughts during the 1970s and 1980s. Though Sahel precipitation changes during the late twentieth century have been extensively studied, little is known about the decadal variability prior to the twentieth century. Some evidence suggests that during the second half of the nineteenth century, the Sahel was as rainy as or even more rainy than during the 1950s and 1960s. Here, we reproduce such an anomalous Sahel humid period in the late nineteenth century by means of climate simulations. We show that this increase of rainfall was associated with an anomalous supply of humidity and higher-than-normal deep convection in the mid- and high troposphere. We present evidence suggesting that sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Atlantic basin played the dominant role in driving decadal Sahel rainfall variability during this early period. |
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