The West African climate system: a review of the AMMA model inter-comparison initiatives

P. M. Ruti (1) , J. E. Williams (2) , F. Hourdin (3, 4) , F. Guichard (5) , A. Boone (5) , P. van Velthoven (2) , F. Favot (5) , I. Musat (4) , M. Rummukainen (6) , M. Domínguez (7) , M. Á. Gaertner (7) , J. P. Lafore (5) , T. Losada (8) , M. B. Rodriguez de Fonseca (8) , J. Polcher (4) , F. Giorgi (9) , Y. Xue (10) , Idir Bouarar (11) , Kathy S. Law (11) , B. Josse (5) , Brice Barret (12) , X. Yang (13) , C. Mari (12) , A. K. Traore (14)

1 UTMEA-CLIM - Energy Environment Modeling Unit-Climate and Impact Modeling Laboratory
2 KNMI - Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
3 IPSL - Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace
4 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
5 CNRM - Centre national de recherches météorologiques
6 SMHI - Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
7 ICAM - Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales [Toledo]
8 Departamento de Geofisica y Meteorologia [Madrid]
9 ICTP - Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics [Trieste]
10 Department of Geography [Los Angeles]
11 TROPO - LATMOS
12 LAERO - Laboratoire d'aérologie
13 Centre for Atmospheric Science [Cambridge, UK]
14 LPAO-SF - Laboratoire de Physique de l'Atmosphère et de l'Océan Siméon Fongang

We review the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) model inter-comparison activities for West Africa. The Model Inter-comparison Project is an evaluation exercise of how global and regional atmospheric models represent seasonal and intra-seasonal variations of the climate and rainfall over the Sahel. The Land surface Model Inter-comparison Project in turn focuses on modelling critical land surface processes over West Africa and on their link with the atmosphere. The CHEmistry Model Inter-comparison Project (CHEMIP) is a comparison of the tropospheric composition as simulated by a number of Chemical Transport Models (CTM) and Chemistry-Climate Models. We highlight the main model limitations and provide recommendations for future development.

Mots clés: Regional and global model uncertainties; Systematic errors; African monsoon

Domaines: Climatologie; Milieux et Changements globaux

P. M. Ruti, J. E. Williams, F. Hourdin, F. Guichard, A. Boone, et al.. The West African climate system: a review of the AMMA model inter-comparison initiatives. Atmospheric Science Letters, 2011, 12 (14-15), pp.116-122. ⟨10.1002/asl.305⟩. ⟨hal-00570059⟩