Atmospheric and Climate Sciences

Volume 3, Issue 3 (July 2013)

ISSN Print: 2160-0414   ISSN Online: 2160-0422

Google-based Impact Factor: 0.68  Citations  h5-index & Ranking

A Note on Pacific Decadal Oscillation, El Nino Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Intertropical Front in Sahel, Africa

HTML  XML Download Download as PDF (Size: 2119KB)  PP. 269-274  
DOI: 10.4236/acs.2013.33028    5,959 Downloads   8,896 Views  Citations

ABSTRACT

The advance and retreat of the Sahara Desert are repetitive in decadal time scale. This climate variability, unique in the world, results from the irregular motion of the Intertropical Front (ITF), a discontinuity originated from the convergence of two air masses over the African continent. It results from the convergence of a dry air mass flowing off the North African anticyclone and a southwestern warm and humid air mass that originates off the South Atlantic anticyclone. As it crosses the equator, this air stream is shifted rightwards, becoming southwesterly winds and transporting moisture into the continent. The equatorial thermal low associated with ITF over the continent is deeper and more intense than the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) one and its thermodynamic properties differ remarkably, moisture concentration in particular. The ITF annual latitudinal displacement is larger than that of the Atlantic ITCZ, reaching 20?N commonly during the North Hemisphere summer. In this manuscript one discuss about the possibility that Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is not a regular physical oscillation and its phases duration may not be predictable and be dependent of large magnitude seismic events, which are rare and random. An important point, however, is that the Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) pattern, once established and recognized, may remain for a relative long (decades) period. Its SST pattern, due to its large area extension, modulates the global climate forcing the large scale general circulation features, ENSO in particular, to produce distinct regional impacts, depending on the signal and strength of the SST anomalies. This happened with the ITF in the Sahel and may possibly have occurred with other large scale atmospheric structures, such as the Asian Monsoon, convergence zones and subtropical anticyclones centers positioning.

Share and Cite:

L. Molion and P. Lucio, "A Note on Pacific Decadal Oscillation, El Nino Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Intertropical Front in Sahel, Africa," Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 3, 2013, pp. 269-274. doi: 10.4236/acs.2013.33028.

Cited by

[1] Influence of Global Climate on Terrestrial Water Storage
Satellite Remote Sensing of Terrestrial Hydrology, 2022
[2] Índices de aridez nos núcleos de desertificação da Paraíba
Conjecturas, 2022
[3] Climate Change Scenarios for the Northeast Region of Brazil through the Statistical Downscaling Technique
2021
[4] Analysis of future climate scenarios for northeastern Brazil and implications for human thermal comfort
2021
[5] Cenários de Mudanças Climáticas para a Região Nordeste do Brasil por meio da Técnica de Downscaling Estatístico
2021
[6] Climate teleconnections influence on West Africa s terrestrial water storage
Hydrological Processes, 2017
[7] Climate teleconnections influence on West Africa's terrestrial water storage
Hydrological processes, 2017
[8] Cenários futuros de mudanças climáticas aplicados ao índice de conforto térmico para o nordeste do Brasil
2017
[9] Variabilidade da precipitação sobre a região ocidental do oeste do Sahel associada ao comportamento da frente intertropical-FIT
2016
[10] On the potentials of multiple climate variables in assessing the spatio-temporal characteristics of hydrological droughts over the Volta Basin
Science of The Total Environment, 2016
[11] Rainfall variability over Alagoas under the influences of SST anomalies
Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 2016
[12] Robust Sahel drought due to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation in CMIP5 simulations
Geophysical Research Letters, 2015
[13] Precipitation Patterns in Cape Verde Islands: Santiago Island Case Study
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, 2014
[14] VIICongresso Brasileiro de Biometeorologia, Ambiência, Comportamento e Bem-Estar Animal “Responsabilidade
2013

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.