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The evolution of African monsoons and its impacts on precipitation seasonality in the late Cenozoic and future climate change
  • +1
  • Frank Arthur,
  • Daniel Boateng,
  • Michael Baidu,
  • Jeffrey N A Aryee
Frank Arthur
Department of Natural Sciences and Environmental Health, University of South-Eastern Norway

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Daniel Boateng
Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen

Corresponding Author:

Michael Baidu
Institute of Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
Jeffrey N A Aryee
Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Abstract

The West African Monsoon (WAM) strongly drives precipitation variability and seasonality across continental West Africa and the tropical Eastern Atlantic. However, the evolution of the WAM in the late Cenozoic, in response to changes in vegetation, atmospheric CO 2 , orbital forcings, paleogeography, and orography as well as its teleconnections such as the mean location of the African Easterly Jet (AEJ), Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ), SubTropical Jet (STJ), Inter-Tropical Discontinuity (ITD) and low-level westerly flow is not well constrained. We contribute to understanding past WAM dynamics by performing high-resolution, time-specific paleoclimate simulation using General Circulation Model ECHAM5. We focus our analysis on the migration and intensification of the WAM and its associated atmospheric thermodynamic structure which influence the rainfall seasonality and patterns across the Sahel, Guinea Coast, and Sahara regions.

Preprint timeline

22 Jan 2023Submitted to AGU Fall Meeting 2022
24 Jan 2023Published in AGU Fall Meeting 2022