West African Monsoon Dynamics and Eastern Equatorial Atlantic and Pacific SST Anomalies (1970–88)
Open accessAbstract
The Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique atmospheric GCM is used to investigate relationships between West African monsoon dynamics and SST anomalies in the eastern equatorial Atlantic and Pacific for the period 1970–88. Positive SST anomalies in the eastern equatorial Pacific, mainly associated with a larger east–west divergent circulation over the tropical Atlantic, are found to coincide with negative rainfall anomalies over West Africa. This is the case for the composite ENSO warm episodes of 1972, 1976, 1982, and 1983. By contrast, positive SST anomalies in the eastern equatorial Atlantic are accompanied by a southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone along with negative rainfall anomalies in the Sahel and positive rainfall anomalies in the Guinean region. This was the case in 1987. The ENSO warm event during this year had apparently no significant impact on West African monsoon dynamics. A zonal atmospheric coupling associated with differences of SST anomalies between the eastern equatorial Pacific and the Atlantic is evident in the period 1970–88. Positive (negative) phases of this coupling could enhance the impact of ENSO warm (cold) events on West African monsoon dynamics.
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ENSO acts by modifying the east-west divergent circulation, which modulates the vertical movements over West Africa, while the Pacific-Atlantic zonal atmospheric gradient, coupled to opposite SST anomalies over both oceanic basins, can enhance the West African rainfall response.
“ENSO seems to act by modifying the east-west divergent circulation, which modulates the vertical movements over WA, while the Pacific-Atlantic zonal atmospheric gradient, coupled to the opposite SST anomalies over both oceanic basins, can enhance the WA rainfall response (Janicot et al. 1998).”
From Tropical Atlantic variability modes (1979-2002). Part I: Time-evolving SST modes related to West African rainfall (2008) · cites this paper as Janicot et al. 1998
A warm phase of the AZM shifts the ITCZ anomalously to the south during June-August, increasing rainfall over the Gulf of Guinea.
“A warm phase of the AZM shifts the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) anomalously to the south during June-August, increasing rainfall over the Gulf of Guinea (Figure 4A; Janicot et al., 1998;Okumura and Xie, 2004;Polo et al., 2008;Joly and Voldoire, 2010;Losada et al., 2010;Rodríguez-Fonseca et al., 2011, 2015).”
From The tropical atlantic observing system (2019) · cites this paper as Janicot et al., 1998
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References 33 · Cited by 156
- Authors
- Janicot, S., Harzallah, A., Fontaine, B., & Moron, V.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Université de Bourgogne (FR)
- Venue
- Journal of Climate
- Publisher
- American Meteorological Society
- Published
- 1998-08-01
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1874-1882
- ISSN
- 0894-8755 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-0442
- OpenAlex
- W4242720412
- Cited by
- 156
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hal.science
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Climate (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Keywords
- West African monsoon, sea surface temperature anomalies, eastern equatorial Atlantic, eastern equatorial Pacific, ENSO, Intertropical Convergence Zone, Sahel rainfall, monsoon rainfall anomalies
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