Response of regional climate to global forcing : the dynamics of climate change in West Africa
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- There is now unequivocal evidence that the Earth's climate is changing as a result of human activities. These changes pose a number of potential risks for human and natural systems. Within the Sahel, a semi-arid region of northern Africa that is home to over 50 million people, climate-related stresses on human systems are exacerbated by a limited capacity for climate adaptation and persistent uncertainty in projections of future climate. In this dissertation I utilize a suite of numerical modeling techniques in conjunction with observational data to study the multi-scale interactions that shape rainfall and atmospheric circulation in northern West Africa. This dissertation consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, I use an ensemble of general circulation model experiments to examine the relative roles of different global drivers in shaping projected changes in West African climate. Specifically, I assess the response of precipitation and atmospheric circulation in West Africa to the individual influences of direct atmospheric radiative forcing from projected increases in greenhouse gas concentrations and greenhouse gas-induced sea surface temperature forcing. In the second chapter, I evaluate the simulation of synoptic-scale weather disturbances, known as African easterly waves, in the latest generation of global climate models. African easterly waves serve as an important source of Sahel rainfall and play a critical role in Saharan dust transport and the initiation of the most intense Atlantic basin hurricanes. In this work I identify key reasons for biases in the simulation of African easterly waves, and offer several new insights for improved climate modeling efforts in West Africa. In the third chapter, I explore the response of atmospheric circulation in West Africa to projected increases in greenhouse gas concentrations. Models exhibit a robust increase in monsoon strength and African easterly wave activity in response to the pattern of future warming in West Africa. These results suggest the possibility of a number of future climate-related impacts on human and natural systems in West Africa and the greater Atlantic basin.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Skinner, Christopher Bryan |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Environmental Earth System Science. |
| Primary advisor | Diffenbaugh, Noah S |
| Thesis advisor | Diffenbaugh, Noah S |
| Thesis advisor | Caldeira, K. (Ken) |
| Thesis advisor | Lambin, Eric F |
| Thesis advisor | Thomas, Leif N |
| Advisor | Caldeira, K. (Ken) |
| Advisor | Lambin, Eric F |
| Advisor | Thomas, Leif N |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Christopher Bryan Skinner. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Environmental Earth System Science. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by Christopher Bryan Skinner
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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