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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Impacts sur le climat régional induits par l'immersion d'une zone aride : cas de Chott Jérid (sud de la Tunisie).

subject

description

This work aims to show the possible impacts on the regional climate that could be caused by the partial immersion ofChott Jérid located in the south of Tunisia. Climate simulations have been carried out using the Weather Research andForecasting (WRF) model to compare the present climate of the Chott area simulated over the period 1991-2011 under realconditions of land use to the climate simulated in the fictional presence of a vast artificial waterbody (or lake). Comparisonsshowed that the lake would have a particularly moderating effect on average air temperatures. The sensible heat flux wouldincrease substantially during the winter and decrease during the summer, while latent heat and moisture fluxes would increasethroughout the annual cycle, but particularly in winter (especially in January). At the whole domain scale, average annualrainfall would increase by about 14%. Average seasonal rainfall would increase by about 36% in winter, whereas it woulddecrease by -17% in the presence of the lake in summer. The effects of the lake seem to be linked to local physical phenomena, inparticular the level of convective stability of the air above the lake.