A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model
We used the regional climate model RegCM3 to investigate the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in affecting the climate of the surrounding region. Towards this end, we first assessed the performance of a high resolution version of the model over northern Africa. RegCM3 shows a good skill in simul...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Vienna
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104446 |
| _version_ | 1811095127385440256 |
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| author | Zaroug, Modathir A. H. Sylla, M. B. Giorgi, F. Eltahir, Elfatih A. B. Aggarwal, Pradeep K. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Zaroug, Modathir A. H. Sylla, M. B. Giorgi, F. Eltahir, Elfatih A. B. Aggarwal, Pradeep K. |
| author_sort | Zaroug, Modathir A. H. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We used the regional climate model RegCM3 to investigate the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in affecting the climate of the surrounding region. Towards this end, we first assessed the performance of a high resolution version of the model over northern Africa. RegCM3 shows a good skill in simulating the climatology of rainfall and temperature patterns as well as the related circulation features during the summer season, outperforming previous coarser resolution applications of the model over this region. Sensitivity experiments reveal that, relative to bare soil conditions, the swamps act to locally modify the surface energy budget primarily through an increase of surface latent heat flux. Existence of the swamps leads to lower ground temperature (up to 2 °C), a larger north–south temperature gradient, and increased local rainfall (up to 40 %). Of particular importance is the impact on rainfall in the surrounding regions. The swamps have almost no impact on the rainfall over the source region of the Nile in Ethiopia or in the Sahel region; however, they favor wetter conditions over central Sudan (up to 15 %) in comparison to the bare desert soil conditions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:11:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/104446 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:11:05Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Springer Vienna |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1044462022-10-02T06:55:08Z A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model Zaroug, Modathir A. H. Sylla, M. B. Giorgi, F. Eltahir, Elfatih A. B. Aggarwal, Pradeep K. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Eltahir, Elfatih A. B. We used the regional climate model RegCM3 to investigate the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in affecting the climate of the surrounding region. Towards this end, we first assessed the performance of a high resolution version of the model over northern Africa. RegCM3 shows a good skill in simulating the climatology of rainfall and temperature patterns as well as the related circulation features during the summer season, outperforming previous coarser resolution applications of the model over this region. Sensitivity experiments reveal that, relative to bare soil conditions, the swamps act to locally modify the surface energy budget primarily through an increase of surface latent heat flux. Existence of the swamps leads to lower ground temperature (up to 2 °C), a larger north–south temperature gradient, and increased local rainfall (up to 40 %). Of particular importance is the impact on rainfall in the surrounding regions. The swamps have almost no impact on the rainfall over the source region of the Nile in Ethiopia or in the Sahel region; however, they favor wetter conditions over central Sudan (up to 15 %) in comparison to the bare desert soil conditions. Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Earth System Physics) International Atomic Energy Agency STEP program 2016-09-29T19:31:23Z 2016-09-29T19:31:23Z 2012-09 2011-10 2016-08-18T15:21:30Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0177-798X 1434-4483 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104446 Zaroug, Modathir A. H., M. B. Sylla, F. Giorgi, Elfatih A. B. Eltahir, and Pradeep K. Aggarwal. “A Sensitivity Study on the Role of the Swamps of Southern Sudan in the Summer Climate of North Africa Using a Regional Climate Model.” Theor Appl Climatol 113, no. 1–2 (September 25, 2012): 63–81. en http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0751-6 Theoretical and Applied Climatology Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Springer-Verlag application/pdf Springer Vienna Springer Vienna |
| spellingShingle | Zaroug, Modathir A. H. Sylla, M. B. Giorgi, F. Eltahir, Elfatih A. B. Aggarwal, Pradeep K. A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model |
| title | A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model |
| title_full | A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model |
| title_fullStr | A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model |
| title_full_unstemmed | A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model |
| title_short | A sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern Sudan in the summer climate of North Africa using a regional climate model |
| title_sort | sensitivity study on the role of the swamps of southern sudan in the summer climate of north africa using a regional climate model |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104446 |
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