US-West Africa Workshop: Global and Regional Models for West African Climate Systems; Washington, D.C., May 18 - 20, 2000

9987639

Jenkins

This award supports 17 participants (seven US and ten African) in the US-West Africa Workshop on Global and Regional Models for West African Climate Systems, to be held in Washington, DC, in May 2000. Additional participants include representatives from IGBP/START and GEF (Global Environmental Fund), as well as climatologists and modelers from local universities and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The co-organizers are Dr. Gregory S. Jenkins, of the Department of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, and Dr. Adamou Garba, of the Laboratory for Atmospheric Physics at Cheik Anta Diop University in Senegal.

During the past several decades West Africa has experienced extreme variability in its precipitation amounts. It has been observed that this variability is inextricably related to land-use change, especially vegetation-climate interactions, but little is known about the cause and effect mechanisms of such interactions. Modeling techniques that have been adapted to use West African climate data should lead to a better understanding of such interactions. The participants will assess the current status of global modeling efforts that are focused on the relationships among West African rainfall and global sea surface temperatures, land-use changes, and elevated greenhouse gases. New areas of research and new modeling techniques will be explored to determine the anticipated benefits they can provide to future studies on climate variability in West Africa.

The workshop will foster interactions among and between US and West African scientists and modelers. The resultant projects will help increase the current knowledge about climate variability in West Africa, especially as it is related to land-use changes. This grant will support the participation of four junior researchers from the United States and two junior researchers from West Africa. This project is being jointly funded by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Atmospheric Sciences.