Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector.
We document a strong teleconnection between Central Equatorial African (CEA) rainfall (and Congo River discharge) and the large-scale circulation over the North Atlantic, throughout the boreal winter/spring season. Positive rainfall anomalies over CEA (at interannual and multi-annual timescales) are...
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ftucl:oai:eprints.ucl.ac.uk.OAI2:11214 2023-12-24T10:22:56+01:00 Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector. Todd, M Washington, R 2004-12-04 application/pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/1/2004GL020975.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/ eng eng https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/1/2004GL020975.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/ open Geophysical Research Letters , 31 , Article L23202. (2004) Article 2004 ftucl 2023-11-27T13:07:36Z We document a strong teleconnection between Central Equatorial African (CEA) rainfall (and Congo River discharge) and the large-scale circulation over the North Atlantic, throughout the boreal winter/spring season. Positive rainfall anomalies over CEA (at interannual and multi-annual timescales) are related to anomalous westerly mid-tropospheric zonal winds over the CEA/Atlantic region. These anomalies appear to be part of a coherent structure of zonal wind anomalies extending to the polar regions of the North Atlantic, similar to that associated with the NAO pattern. Idealised model simulations suggest that at least over the tropical and subtropical latitudes of the Atlantic/African sector such a signal may be associated with SST forcing from the Tropical North Atlantic (TNA) region. We conclude that TNA SSTs may force these circulation anomalies over CEA at multi-annual timescales but at interannual timescales they may be relatively independent of TNA SSTs. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University College London: UCL Discovery |
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Open Polar |
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University College London: UCL Discovery |
op_collection_id |
ftucl |
language |
English |
description |
We document a strong teleconnection between Central Equatorial African (CEA) rainfall (and Congo River discharge) and the large-scale circulation over the North Atlantic, throughout the boreal winter/spring season. Positive rainfall anomalies over CEA (at interannual and multi-annual timescales) are related to anomalous westerly mid-tropospheric zonal winds over the CEA/Atlantic region. These anomalies appear to be part of a coherent structure of zonal wind anomalies extending to the polar regions of the North Atlantic, similar to that associated with the NAO pattern. Idealised model simulations suggest that at least over the tropical and subtropical latitudes of the Atlantic/African sector such a signal may be associated with SST forcing from the Tropical North Atlantic (TNA) region. We conclude that TNA SSTs may force these circulation anomalies over CEA at multi-annual timescales but at interannual timescales they may be relatively independent of TNA SSTs. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Todd, M Washington, R |
spellingShingle |
Todd, M Washington, R Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector. |
author_facet |
Todd, M Washington, R |
author_sort |
Todd, M |
title |
Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector. |
title_short |
Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector. |
title_full |
Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector. |
title_fullStr |
Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate variability in central equatorial Africa: Influence from the Atlantic sector. |
title_sort |
climate variability in central equatorial africa: influence from the atlantic sector. |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/1/2004GL020975.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/ |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters , 31 , Article L23202. (2004) |
op_relation |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/1/2004GL020975.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11214/ |
op_rights |
open |
_version_ |
1786196519633813504 |