Sahel rainfall strength and onset improvements due to more realistic Atlantic cold tongue development in a climate model.

ABSTRACT: The simulation of Sahel rainfall and its onset during the West African Monsoon (WAM) remains a challenge for current state-of-the-art climate models due to their persistent biases, especially in the tropical Atlantic region. Here we show that improved representation of Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) development is essential for a more realistic seasonal evolution of the WAM, which is due to a further inland migration of the precipitation maximum. The observed marked relationship between ACT development and Sahel rainfall onset only can be reproduced by a climate model, the Kiel Climate Model (KCM), when sufficiently high resolution in its atmospheric component is employed, enabling enhanced equatorial Atlantic interannual sea surface temperature variability in the ACT region relative to versio

SUBMITTER: Steinig S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5803197 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature