Quasi-decadal signals of Sahel rainfall and West African monsoon since the mid-twentieth century
[1] Sahel rainfall shows pronounced decadal variability and a negative trend between wet conditions in the 1950s–1960s and dry ones in the 1970s–1980s. Using continuous wavelet transform, the quasi-decadal variability (QDV) of rainfall reveals zonal contrasts. The highest QDV is identified in the 1950s–1960s over western Sahel and in the 1970s–1980s over eastern Sahel. The quasi-decadal atmospheric anomalies have been reconstructed using Fourier transform for the 1950s–1960s and the 1970s–1980s, respectively, and assessed by the composite analysis of the QDV phases for the periods before and after 1968. Over western Sahel, the rainfall QDV in the 1950s–1960s is related to the North Atlantic…
Intercomparison and analyses of the climatology of the West African Monsoon in the West African Monsoon Modeling and Evaluation project (WAMME) first model intercomparison experiment
International audience; This paper briefly presents the West African Monsoon (WAM) Modeling and Evaluation Project (WAMME) and evaluates WAMME general circulation models' (GCM) performances in simulating variability of WAM precipitation, surface temperature, and major circulation features at seasonal and intraseasonal scales in the first WAMME experiment. The analyses indicate that models with specified sea surface temperature generally have reasonable simulations of the pattern of spatial distribution of WAM seasonal mean precipitation and surface temperature as well as the averaged zonal wind in latitude-height cross-section and low level circulation. But there are large differences among mo…