Orbitally forced and internal changes in West African rainfall interannual-to-decadal variability for the last 6000 years.

ABSTRACT: Recent variability in West African monsoon rainfall (WAMR) has been shown to be influenced by multiple ocean-atmosphere modes, including the El Niño Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. How these modes will change in response to long term forcing is less well understood. Here we use four transient simulations driven by changes in orbital forcing and greenhouse gas concentrations over the past 6000 years to examine the relationship between West African monsoon rainfall multiscale variability and changes in the modes associated with this variability. All four models show a near linear decline in monsoon rainfall over the past 6000 years in response to the gradual weakening of the interhemispheric gradient in sea surface temperature

SUBMITTER: Cretat J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10899366 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature