Congo Basin Hydrology, Climate, and Biogeochemistry. Группа авторов
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Название: Congo Basin Hydrology, Climate, and Biogeochemistry

Автор: Группа авторов

Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited

Жанр: География

Серия:

isbn: 9781119656999

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ component, and the warm and dry Kalahari and the Congo for the southern component (Cook, 2015; Kuete et al., 2020). These jets modulate mid‐tropospheric moisture convergence and impact rainfall at annual and interannual time scales. Therefore, the jets are influenced by the dynamic of heat lows over the northern and southern African continent. Also associated with these heat lows are shallow meridional circulation cells (Shekar & Boos, 2017) associated with poleward flow at the surface, ascent over dry lands in northern and southern Africa, and a return flow at mid‐troposphere. The Congo Basin Cell is a shallow zonal overturning circulation with ascent over central Africa, an upper eastward flow at mid‐level, and descent branch over the coastal region, and is associated at lower level with the low‐level westerlies from the southeast Altlantic Ocean, which are a main source of moisture for central Africa (Longandjo & Rouault, 2019). The Congo Air Boundary, defined as the location where low‐level westerlies meet with the easterly Indian Ocean trade winds at the surface (Howard and Washington 2019), lies over southern central Africa in August–September and controls the southward shift of the African rainbelt afterward.

      The ITCZ is the climate feature with which the dynamic has long been associated, and the climate regime over Central Africa (Collier & Hughes, 2011; Sandjon et al., 2012). This assumes that, over central Africa, surface wind convergence is collocated with maximum temperature, high cloudiness, rainfall, low pressure (McGregor & Nieuwolt, 1998), and minimum longwave radiation (Sandjon et al., 2012). Suzuki (2011) couldn’t find a strong relation between these surface meteorological variables and the mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of the ITCZ. Over Central Africa, surface wind convergence is discernible in the northern part and associated with a local heat low, shallow convection (Suzuki, 2011), and little rainfall (Nicholson, 2009). This surface convergence is effectively independent of the system that produces deep convection and most of the rainfall. Over much of the area of maximum rainfall, Nicholson (2018) found lower tropospheric subsidence and concludes that over central Africa, the ITCZ paradigm, which entails surface convergence leading directly to ascent and hence rainfall, is incorrect.

      Although the shallow meridional circulation and African easterly jet have been intensively studied over West Africa (e.g., Hagos & Zhang, 2010; Thorncroft et al., 2011), they could contribute in a different way to regional rainfall processes over central Africa. Over West Africa the well‐known “monsoon jump” and the associated seasonal meridional migration of rainfall is modulated by the northern component of the African Easterly Jet through inertial instability, whereas over Central Africa such modulation is not observed (Cook, 2015). In addition, differences in the shape of the northern and southern hemisphere of Africa lead to differences in the driving mechanisms of each local mid‐level tropospheric jet (Kuete et al., 2019) and the associated features (Adebiyi & Zuidema, 2017). Moreover, in a geographic sense, central Africa is unique as a region of deep convection bordered north and south by semi‐arid regions. This suggests that although understanding drivers of climate variability over central Africa may benefit from advances in knowledge of features as shallow meridional circulation and African easterly jet over other regions in Africa, specific investigation of their role over central Africa is needed to avoid misleading information.