Search results for "harmattan"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Recent changes in air temperature, heat waves occurrences, and atmospheric circulation in Northern Africa
2013
This study documents the time evolution of air temperature and heat waves occurrences over Northern Africa for the period 1979-2011. A significant warming (1°-3°C), appearing by the mid-1960s over Sahara and Sahel, is associated with higher/lesser frequency of warm/cold temperatures, as with longer duration and higher occurrences of heat waves. Heat waves episodes of at least 4 day duration have been examined after removing the long-term evolution. These episodes are associated with specific anomalies: (i) in spring, positive low-level temperature anomalies over the Sahel and Sahara; low and midlevel cyclonic rotation over Morocco associated with a Rossby wave pattern, lessening the Harmatt…
The impact of a mesoscale convective system cold pool on the northward propagation of the intertropical discontinuity over West Africa
2009
The interaction between a mesoscale convection system cold pool and the intertropical discontinuity (ITD) is investigated on two consecutive days (5 and 6 June 2006), in the framework of the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis Special Observing Period (SOP 1a). Satellite imagery and surface meteorological observations are used to track the movement of the ITD prior to and after its interaction with the cold pool. The impact of the northward propagating cold pool on the Sahelo-Saharan planetary boundary layer (PBL) thermodynamics and aerosol vertical distribution is analyzed by means of airborne and ground-based measurements over the two-day period. Complementary European Centre for M…
Dust emissions over the Sahel associated with the West African monsoon intertropical discontinuity region: A representative case-study
2008
Near-dawn airborne lidar and dropsonde observations acquired on 7 July 2006, during the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) Special Observing Period 2a1, were used to investigate dust mobilization, lifting and transport in the intertropical discontinuity (ITD) region over western Niger. Atmospheric reflectivity data from the LEANDRE 2 lidar system enabled us to analyse the structure of dust plumes in the context of wind and thermodynamic information provided by the WIND lidar system and dropsondes. Dust mobilization was mainly observed in two locations: (a) within the monsoon flow as the result of the passage of a density current originating from a mesoscale convective system …