Intraseasonal variability over tropical Africa during northern summer

Matthews, Adrian J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0492-1168 (2004) Intraseasonal variability over tropical Africa during northern summer. Journal of Climate, 17 (12). pp. 2427-2440. ISSN 0894-8755

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Abstract

The intraseasonal variability over Africa during northern summer was analyzed, using 25 years of NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and satellite data. The dominant pattern of variability was one of enhanced deep convection over the whole African monsoon region. It appeared to arise at least partly as a remote response to the intraseasonal (Madden--Julian) oscillation over the warm pool sector. Twenty days prior to the maximum in convection over Africa, there was no signal over Africa but convection was reduced over the equatorial warm pool. An equatorial Kelvin wave response to this change in warm pool convection propagated eastward and an equatorial Rossby wave response propagated westward and between them they completed a circuit of the equator and met up twenty days later over Africa, where the negative mid-tropospheric temperature anomalies in the Kelvin and Rossby wave favoured deep convection. Over West Africa, the Kelvin wave component contained lower-tropospheric westerly anomalies which acted to increase the boundary layer monsoon flow and moisture supply. The westerly anomalies also increased the cyclonic shear on the equatorward flank of the African easterly jet, leading to enhanced African easterly wave and transient convective activity, which then contributed to the enhanced convection over Africa on the longer intraseasonal time scale. The implications of this intraseasonal mode for predictability over Africa are discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Volcanoes@UEA (former - to 2018) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Meteorology, Oceanography and Climate Dynamics (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climate, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluids & Structures Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Numerical Simulation, Statistics & Data Science
Depositing User:	Vishal Gautam
Date Deposited:	15 Jun 2004
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2024 12:35
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/17634
DOI:	10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<2427:IVOTAD>2.0.CO;2

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