Simulating the link between ENSO and summer drought in Southern Africa using regional climate models

Verfasser / Beitragende:
[Arlindo Meque, Babatunde Abiodun]
Ort, Verlag, Jahr:
2015
Enthalten in:
Climate Dynamics, 44/7-8(2015-04-01), 1881-1900
Format:
Artikel (online)
ID: 605473633
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024 7 0 |a 10.1007/s00382-014-2143-3  |2 doi 
035 |a (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00382-014-2143-3 
245 0 0 |a Simulating the link between ENSO and summer drought in Southern Africa using regional climate models  |h [Elektronische Daten]  |c [Arlindo Meque, Babatunde Abiodun] 
520 3 |a This study evaluates the capability of regional climate models (RCMs) in simulating the link between El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Southern African droughts. It uses the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI, computed using rainfall and temperature data) to identify 3-month drought over Southern Africa, and compares the observed and simulated correlation between ENSO and SPEI. The observation data are from the Climate Research Unit, while the simulation data are from ten RCMs (ARPEGE, CCLM, HIRHAM, RACMO, REMO, PRECIS, RegCM3, RCA, WRF, and CRCM) that participated in the regional climate downscaling experiment (CORDEX) project. The study analysed the rainy season (December-February) data for 19years (1989-2008). The results show a strong link between ENSO and droughts (SPEI) over Southern Africa. The link is owing to the influence of ENSO on both rainfall and temperature fields, but the correlation between ENSO and temperature is stronger than the correlation between ENSO and rainfall. Hence, using only rainfall to monitor droughts in Southern Africa may underestimate the influence of ENSO on the droughts. Only few CORDEX RCMs simulate the influence of ENSO on Southern African drought as observed. In this regard, the ARPEGE model shows the best simulation, while CRCM shows the worst. The different in the performance may be due to their lateral boundary conditions. The RCA-simulated link between ENSO and Southern African droughts is sensitive to the global dataset used as the lateral boundary conditions. In some cases, using RCA to downscale global circulation models (GCM) simulations adds value to the simulated link between ENSO and the droughts, but in other cases the downscaling adds no value to the link. The added value of RCA to the simulated link decreases as the capability of the GCM to simulate the link increases. This study suggests that downscaling GCM simulations with RCMs over Southern Africa may improve or depreciate the simulated ENSO-drought link over the region. 
540 |a Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014 
690 7 |a Droughts  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Southern Africa  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a ENSO  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a CORDEX  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Regional climate models  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Added value  |2 nationallicence 
700 1 |a Meque  |D Arlindo  |u Climate System Analysis Group, Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Abiodun  |D Babatunde  |u Climate System Analysis Group, Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa  |4 aut 
773 0 |t Climate Dynamics  |d Springer Berlin Heidelberg  |g 44/7-8(2015-04-01), 1881-1900  |x 0930-7575  |q 44:7-8<1881  |1 2015  |2 44  |o 382 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2143-3  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
898 |a BK010053  |b XK010053  |c XK010000 
900 7 |a Metadata rights reserved  |b Springer special CC-BY-NC licence  |2 nationallicence 
908 |D 1  |a research-article  |2 jats 
949 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |F NATIONALLICENCE  |b NL-springer 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 856  |E 40  |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2143-3  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Meque  |D Arlindo  |u Climate System Analysis Group, Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Abiodun  |D Babatunde  |u Climate System Analysis Group, Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 773  |E 0-  |t Climate Dynamics  |d Springer Berlin Heidelberg  |g 44/7-8(2015-04-01), 1881-1900  |x 0930-7575  |q 44:7-8<1881  |1 2015  |2 44  |o 382