GC41B-1079
Synchrony of trend shifts in Sahel summer rainfall and global oceanic evaporation, 1950–2012
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Alima Diawara, Hampton University, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Hampton, VA, United States, Yoshihiro Tachibana, Fac. of Bioresources, Mie Univ, Mie-Ken, Japan, Kazuhiro Oshima, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science & Technology, Yokosuka, Japan, Hatsumi Nishikawa, Mie University, Tsu, Japan and Yuta Ando, Mie University, Weather and Climate Dynamics Division, Tsu, Japan
Abstract:
Between 1950 and 2012, summer (rainy season) rainfall in the Sahel changed from a multi-decadal decreasing trend to an increasing trend (positive trend shift) in the mid-1980s. We found that this trend shift was synchronous with similar trend shifts in global oceanic evaporation and in land precipitation in all continents except the Americas. The trend shift in oceanic evaporation occurred mainly in the southern hemisphere (SH) and the subtropical oceans of the northern hemisphere (NH). Because increased oceanic evaporation strengthens the atmospheric moisture transport toward land areas, the synchrony of oceanic evaporation and land precipitation is reasonable. Surface scalar winds over the SH oceans also displayed a positive trend shift. Sea surface temperature (SST) displayed a trend shift in the mid-1980s that was negative (increasing, then decreasing) in the SH and positive in the NH. Although SST had opposite trend shifts in both hemispheres, the trend shift in evaporation was positive in both hemispheres. We infer that because strong winds promote evaporative cooling, the trend shift in SH winds strengthened the trend shifts of both SST and evaporation in the SH. Because high SST promotes evaporation, the trend shift in NH SST strengthened the NH trend shift in evaporation.
