Author(s)

Aichetou Dia-Diop¹, Malick Wade^1*, Sinclaire Zebaze², Abdoulaye Bouya Diop¹, Eric Efon³, Andre Lenouo², Bouya Diop¹

¹Laboratoire des Sciences de l’Atmosphère et des Océans—Matériaux-énergie-Dispositifs (LSAO-MED), Université Gaston Berger, Saint-Louis, Sénégal.
²Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
³Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon.

This study examines the inter-annual variability of rainfall and Mean Sea Level Pressure (MSLP) over west Africa based on analysis of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) and National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) Reanalysis respectively. An interconnection is found in this region, between Mean Sea Level Pressure (MSLP) anomaly (over Azores and St. Helena High) and monthly mean precipitation during summer (June to September: JJAS). We also found that over northern Senegal (15°N - 17°N; 17°W - 13°W) the SLP to the north is strong; the wind converges at 200 hPa corresponding to the position of the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) the rotational wind 700 hPa (corresponding to the position of the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) coming from the north-east is negative. In this region, the precipitation is related to the SLP to the north with the opposite sign. The Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) of SLP is also presented, including the mean spectrum of precipitation and pressures to the north (15°N - 40°N and 50°W - 25°W) and south (40°S - 10°S and 40°W - 0°E). The dominant EOF of Sea Level Pressures north and south of the Atlantic Ocean for GPCP represents about 62.2% and 69.4% of the variance, respectively. The second and third EOFs of the pressure to the north account for 24.0% and 6.5% respectively. The second and third EOFs of the pressure to the south represent 12.5% and 8.9% respectively. Wet years in the north of Senegal were associated with anomalous low-pressure areas over the north Atlantic Ocean as opposed to the dry years which exhibited an anomalous high-pressure area in the same region. On the other hand, over the South Atlantic, an opposition is noted. The wavelet analysis method is applied to the SLP showings to the north, south and precipitation in our study area. The indices prove to be very consistent, especially during intervals of high variance.

Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), West Africa monsoon, Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, African Easterly Jet (AEJ), Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ), Sea Level Pressure (SLP)

Dia-Diop, A. , Wade, M. , Zebaze, S. , Diop, A. , Efon, E. , Lenouo, A. and Diop, B. (2022) Influence of Sea Level Pressure on Inter-Annual Rainfall Variability in Northern Senegal in the Context of Climate Change. Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, 12, 113-131. doi: 10.4236/acs.2022.121009.