The Congo basin zonal overturning circulation |
| |
| Authors: | Naresh Neupane |
| |
| Institution: | 1.Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences,The University of Texas at Austin,Austin,USA |
| |
| Abstract: | The Gulf of Guinea in the equatorial Atlantic is characterized by the presence of strong subsidence at certain times of the year. This subsidence appears in June and becomes well established from July to September. Since much of theWest African monsoon flow originates over the Gulf, Guinean subsidence is important for determining moisture sources for the monsoon. Using reanalysis products, I contribute to a physical understanding of what causes this seasonal subsidence, and how it relates to precipitation distributions across West Africa.There is a seasonal zonal overturning circulation above the Congo basin and the Gulf of Guinea in the ERA-Interim, ERA-40, NCEP2, and MERRA reanalyses. The up-branch is located in the Congo basin around 20°E. Mid-tropospheric easterly flows constitute the returning-branch and sinking over the Gulf of Guinea forms the down-branch, which diverges at 2°W near the surface, with winds to the east flowing eastward to complete the circulation. This circulation is driven by surface temperature differences between the eastern Gulf and Congo basin. Land temperatures remain almost uniform, around 298 K, throughout a year, but the Guinean temperatures cool rapidly from 294 K in May to about 290 K in August. These temperature changes increase the ocean/land temperature contrast, up to 8 K, and drive the circulation.I hypothesize that when the overturning circulation is anomalously strong, the northward moisture transport and Sahelian precipitation are also strong. This hypothesis is supported by ERA-Interim and PERSIANN-CDR (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record) data. |
| |
| Keywords: | climate atmospheric dynamics monsoon |
| 本文献已被 CNKI 万方数据 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
| 点击此处可从《大气科学进展》浏览原始摘要信息 |
| 点击此处可从《大气科学进展》下载免费的PDF全文 |
|
