Interactions entre poussières désertiques et convection profonde en Afrique de l'Ouest : observation et modélisation à échelle convective

Dans un contexte de réchauffement climatique, la région d'Afrique de l'Ouest, où les sécherresses sont dévastatrices pour les populations, montre les plus fortes incertitudes sur l'évolution des précipitations. C'est aussi la première source de poussières désertiques au monde dont la production est en augmentation par la sur-exploitation des sols. Or ces poussières désertiques, associées à des épidémies de méningite, absorbent et diffusent le flux solaire entraînant alors une modification du taux d'échauffement atmosphérique. En modifiant le bilan radiatif atmosphérique elles sont alors succeptible d'influencer de la turbulence de fine échelle aux circulations atmosphériques de grande échelle. Seulement les processus en jeu dans les interactions entre les poussières désertiques et l'atmosphère sont très variés, complexes, et constituent une grande source d'incertitude dans la prévision numérique. Afin d'appréhender ces processus, un cadre de modélisation à été développé permettant à la fois la résolution explicite de la convection, la résolution du cycle de vie des poussières et de leur impact radiatif, et la prise en compte de leurs interactions sur toute l'Afrique de l'Ouest à échelle mensuelle. Sur un cas extrême de tempête de poussières en saison sèche, la forte quantité de poussières soulevée par le front entraîne une amplification par deux de la signature de la tempête. La modélisation explicite des poussières améliore la prévisibilité de la tempête. De manière plus statistique, pendant la mise en place de la mousson, en juin, la fréquente présence de poussières participe activement à l'initiation du saut de mousson. D'une part, en affaiblissant la dépression thermique Saharienne, un des principaux moteurs de la mousson, mais aussi, d'autre part, en renforçant le déplacement vers le nord du coeur de la zone de convergence inter-tropicale et des jets. A plus fine échelle, la présence de poussières impacte la localisation et le cycle diurne des systèmes convectifs. Les poussières modifient alors la couverture nuageuse dont les impacts radiatifs sont plus forts que l'effet direct des poussières. La prise en compte des effets semi-directs des poussières sont donc essentiels pour la prévision en Afrique de l'Ouest.West Africa shows the greatest uncertainties about the evolution of precipitations. Moreover, in a warming climate, this region is very suceptible to droughts which can be devastating for the local populations. This region is also the main source of desert dust in the world where production is increasing due to over-exploitation of soils. Besides the fact that dust is associated with outbreaks of meningitis, it also has a direct impact on the atmosphere since it absorbs and scatters solar radiation causing a change in atmospheric heating. By altering the atmospheric radiation budget, the dust can influence the fine-scale turbulence up to large-scale atmospheric circulations. Also, the processes involved in the interactions between desert dust and atmosphere are very diverse, complex, and constitute a major source of uncertainty in numerical prediction. In order to understand these processes, a modeling framework was developed which englobes fine to regional scales. It explicitly resolves the deep convection, the dust life cycle and its radiative impacts, but also considers their interactions over all of West Africa at a monthly scale. Under dust storm conditions during the dry season, the high amount of dust raised by the fronts, leads to a near doubling of the storm intensity. By this positive feedback, explicit modeling of dust improves the predictability of the storm. During the establishment of the monsoon in June, the frequent occurrence of dust is actively involved in the initiation of the monsoon onset: On the one hand, by weakening the Saharan heat low, and on the other hand, by strengthening the northward movement of the heart of the inter-tropical convergence and jets. At finer scales, the presence of dust also impacts the location and the diurnal cycle of convective systems. Also, dust can change the cloud cover which leads to stronger radiative impacts than the direct effect of dust. This thesis suggests that accounting for the coupling between the dust and the atmosphere may improve the forecast skill in West Africa

Characterization of dust emission from alluvial sources using aircraft observations and high-resolution modeling

International audienceWe investigate mineral dust emission from alluvial sediments within the upland region in northern Mauritania in the vicinity of a decaying nocturnal low-level jet (LLJ). For the first time, the impact of valleys that are embedded in a rather homogeneous surrounding is investigated with regard to their role as dust source. Measures for local atmospheric dust burden were retrieved from airborne observations, satellite observations, and model simulations and analyzed in order to provide complementary information at different horizontal scales. Observations by the LEANDRE Nouvelle Generation backscatter lidar system flying aboard the French Falcon 20 aircraft were taken along five parallel flight legs perpendicular to the orientation of the main valley system dominating the topography of the study area. Results from a comparison of lidar-derived extinction coefficients with topography and aerial photographs confirm the relevance of (1) alluvial sediments at the valley bottoms as a dust source, and (2) the break-down of the nocturnal LLJ as a trigger for dust emission in this region. An evaluation of the AROME regional model, forecasting dust at high resolution (5 km grid), points toward an under-representation of alluvial dust sources in this region. This is also evident from simulations by the MesoNH research model. Although MesoNH simulations show higher dust loadings than AROME, which are more comparable to the observations, both models underestimate the dust concentrations within the boundary layer compared to lidar observations. A sensitivity study on the impact of horizontal grid spacing (5 km versus 1 km) highlights the importance of spatial resolution on simulated dust loadings

Fennec dust forecast intercomparison over the Sahara in June 2011

International audienceIn the framework of the Fennec international programme , a field campaign was conducted in June 2011 over the western Sahara. It led to the first observational data set ever obtained that documents the dynamics, thermodynam-ics and composition of the Saharan atmospheric boundary layer (SABL) under the influence of the heat low. In support to the aircraft operation, four dust forecasts were run daily at low and high resolutions with convection-parameterizing and convection-permitting models, respectively. The unique airborne and ground-based data sets allowed the first ever intercomparison of dust forecasts over the western Sahara. At monthly scale, large aerosol optical depths (AODs) were forecast over the Sahara, a feature observed by satellite retrievals but with different magnitudes. The AOD intensity was correctly predicted by the high-resolution models, while it was underestimated by the low-resolution models. This was partly because of the generation of strong near-surface wind associated with thunderstorm-related density currents that could only be reproduced by models representing con-vection explicitly. Such models yield emissions mainly in the afternoon that dominate the total emission over the western fringes of the Adrar des Iforas and the Aïr Mountains in the high-resolution forecasts. Over the western Sahara, where the harmattan contributes up to 80 % of dust emission, all the models were successful in forecasting the deep well-mixed SABL. Some of them, however, missed the large near-surface dust concentration generated by density currents and low-level winds. This feature, observed repeatedly by the airborne lidar, was partly forecast by one high-resolution model only

Advances in understanding mineral dust and boundary layer processes over the Sahara from Fennec aircraft observations

International audienceThe Fennec climate program aims to improve understanding of the Saharan climate system through a synergy of observations and modelling. We present a description of the Fennec airborne observations during 2011 and 2012 over the remote Sahara (Mauritania and Mali) and the advances in the understanding of mineral dust and boundary layer processes they have provided. Aircraft instrumentation aboard the UK FAAM BAe146 and French SAFIRE Falcon 20 is described, with specific focus on instrumentation specially developed and relevant to Saharan meteorology and dust. Flight locations, aims and associated meteorology are described. Examples and applications of aircraft measurements from the Fennec flights are presented, highlighting new scientific results delivered using a synergy of different instruments and aircraft. These include: (1) the first airborne measurement of dust particles sized up to 300 microns and associated dust fluxes in the Saharan atmospheric boundary layer (SABL), (2) dust uplift from the breakdown of the nocturnal low-level jet before becoming visible in SEVIRI satellite imagery, (3) vertical profiles of the unique vertical structure of turbulent fluxes in the SABL, (4) in-situ observations of processes in SABL clouds showing dust acting as CCN and IN at −15 °C, (5) dual-aircraft observations of the SABL dynamics, thermodynamics and composition in the Saharan heat low region (SHL), (6) airborne observations of a dust storm associated with a cold-pool (haboob) issued from deep convection over the Atlas, (7) the first airborne chemical composition measurements of dust in the SHL region with differing composition, sources (determined using Lagrangian backward trajectory calculations) and absorption properties between 2011 and 2012, (8) coincident ozone and dust surface area measurements suggest coarser particles provide a route for ozone depletion, (9) discrepancies between airborne coarse mode size distributions and AERONET sunphotometer retrievals under light dust loadings. These results provide insights into boundary layer and dust processes in the SHL region – a region of substantial global climatic importance

Interactions entre poussières désertiques et convection profonde en Afrique de l'Ouest : Observations et modélisation à échelle convective

West Africa shows the greatest uncertainties about the evolution of precipitations. Moreover, in a warming climate, this region is very suceptible to droughts which can be devastating for the local populations. This region is also the main source of desert dust in the world where production is increasing due to over-exploitation of soils. Besides the fact that dust is associated with outbreaks of meningitis, it also has a direct impact on the atmosphere since it absorbs and scatters solar radiation causing a change in atmospheric heating. By altering the atmospheric radiation budget, the dust can influence the fine-scale turbulence up to large-scale atmospheric circulations. Also, the processes involved in the interactions between desert dust and atmosphere are very diverse, complex, and constitute a major source of uncertainty in numerical prediction. In order to understand these processes, a modeling framework was developed which englobes fine to regional scales. It explicitly resolves the deep convection, the dust life cycle and its radiative impacts, but also considers their interactions over all of West Africa at a monthly scale. Under dust storm conditions during the dry season, the high amount of dust raised by the fronts, leads to a near doubling of the storm intensity. By this positive feedback, explicit modeling of dust improves the predictability of the storm. During the establishment of the monsoon in June, the frequent occurrence of dust is actively involved in the initiation of the monsoon onset : On the one hand, by weakening the Saharan heat low, and on the other hand, by strengthening the northward movement of the heart of the inter-tropical convergence and jets. At finer scales, the presence of dust also impacts the location and the diurnal cycle of convective systems. Also, dust can change the cloud cover which leads to stronger radiative impacts than the direct effect of dust. This thesis suggests that accounting for the coupling between the dust and the atmosphere may improve the forecast skill in West Africa.Dans un contexte de réchauffement climatique, la région d'Afrique de l'Ouest, où les sécherresses sont dévastatrices pour les populations, montre les plus fortes incertitudes sur l'évolution des précipitations. C'est aussi la première source de poussières désertiques au monde dont la production est en augmentation par la sur-exploitation des sols. Or ces poussières désertiques, associées à des épidémies de méningite, absorbent et diffusent le flux solaire entraînant alors une modification du taux d'échauffement atmosphérique. En modifiant le bilan radiatif atmosphérique elles sont alors succeptible d'influencer de la turbulence de fine échelle aux circulations atmosphériques de grande échelle. Seulement les processus en jeu dans les interactions entre les poussières désertiques et l'atmosphère sont très variés, complexes, et constituent une grande source d'incertitude dans la prévision numérique. Afin d'appréhender ces processus, un cadre de modélisation à été développé permettant à la fois la résolution explicite de la convection, la résolution du cycle de vie des poussières et de leur impact radiatif, et la prise en compte de leurs interactions sur toute l'Afrique de l'Ouest à échelle mensuelle. Sur un cas extrême de tempête de poussières en saison sèche, la forte quantité de poussières soulevée par le front entraîne une amplification par eux de la signature de la tempête. La modélisation explicite des poussières améliore la prévisibilité de la tempête. De manière plus statistique, pendant la mise en place de la mousson, en juin, la fréquente présence de poussières participe activement à l'initiation du saut de mousson. D'une part, en affaiblissant la dépression thermique Saharienne, un des principaux moteurs de la mousson, mais aussi, d'autre part, en renforçant le déplacement vers le nord du coeur de la zone de convergence inter-tropicale et des jets. A plus fine échelle, la présence de poussières impacte la localisation et le cycle diurne des systèmes convectifs. Les poussières modifient alors la couverture nuageuse dont les impacts radiatifs sont plus forts que l'effet direct des poussières. La prise en compte des effets semi-directs des poussières sont donc essentiels pour la prévision en Afrique de l'Ouest

Radiative effects of mineral dust on West African weather

International audienceCommunication about Radiative effects of mineral dust on West African weathe

Water vapour in the Sarahan Heat Low : A new theory of interannual to decadal scale variability in the summertime circulation over West Africa

International audienceThe Saharan Heat Low (HL) is a region of summertime high surface and boundary layer temperature that is a key dynamical element of the West African monsoon system. Variations in the temperature and thickness of the boundary layer air over the HL region have been shown to modulate the characteristics of the monsoonal circulation, including the intensity and location of monsoon precipitation. Although the importance of the HL in shaping the intraseasonal variability of the monsoon has been established, no study has investigated the interannual to decadal scale variability of the HL, nor determined how such changes in the HL may have affected precipitation across West Africa on such time scales. Via analysis of observations, reanalysis data, coupled model output, and an idealized linear model, we suggest that the noted intraseasonal relationship between HL temperatures and monsoonal circulation holds on interannual to decadal time scales. In addition, the year-to-year variations in the intensity of the HL are radiatively forced by changes of water vapour within the HL region, and, as such, small changes in water vapour advected into the HL may alter the summertime circulation over West Africa. Based on these results we propose a new theory for explaining observed interannual to decadal-scale variability of the West African monsoon and summertime precipitation that is based on positive feedbacks between evaporation associated with vegetation changes in the Sahel, dust emission from West Africa, tropical Atlantic Ocean temperature anomalies, and the dynamics of the HL

The importance of the diurnal cycle of Aerosol Optical Depth in West Africa

International audienceHigh resolution atmospheric simulations with the AROME model coupled with a dust module over West Africa for the whole of June 2006 were used to calculate aerosol optical thickness (AOT). Simulations showed a significant diurnal cycle of 0.2 in the dust AOT that could not be inferred from the MODIS Deep Blue retrievals due to their timings. Dust sources are mainly driven by the breakdown of the early morning low-level jet and by moist convection in the afternoon, leading to opposite diurnal cycles. Also, simulations show that cloud cover significantly prevents the observation of AOT. The under-sampling of the diurnal cycle by satellites plus the impact of cloud masks on the space-borne AOT retrievals induce an underestimation of 0.28 (~40%) over the convective regions and an overestimation of 0.1 (17%) over morning source areas like Bodélé. A combination of observations and high-resolution models could constrain bias and give a more realistic AOT climatology

Water Vapor–Forced Greenhouse Warming over the Sahara Desert and the Recent Recovery from the Sahelian Drought

International audienceThe Sahel region of West Africa experiences decadal swings between periods of drought and abundant rainfall, and a large body of work asserts that these variations in the West African monsoon are a response to changes in the temperatures of the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans. However, here it is shown that when forced by SST alone, most state-of-the-art climate models do not reproduce a statistically significant upward trend in Sahelian precipitation over the last 30 years and that those models with a significant upward trend in rainfall seem to achieve this result for disparate reasons. Here the role of the Saharan heat low (SHL) in the recovery from the Sahelian drought of the 1980s is examined. Using observations and reanalyses, it is demonstrated that there has been an upward trend in SHL temperature that is coincident with the drought recovery. A heat and moisture budget analysis of the SHL suggests that the rise in temperature is due to greenhouse warming by water vapor, but that changes in water vapor are strongly dependent upon the temperature of the SHL: a process termed the Saharan water vapor–temperature (SWAT) feedback. It is shown that the structure of the drought recovery is consistent with a warming SHL and is evidence of a fundamental, but not exclusive, role for the SHL in the recent increase in Sahelian monsoon rainfall

How can a dusty cold pool change the diurnal evolution of the Saharan Atmospheric Boundary Layer ?

International audienceThe Saharan Atmospheric Boundary Layer (SABL) structure, dynamics, thermodynamics and composition over the Central Sahara, associated with several concomittant dust lifting processes observed/modelled on 21 June 2011, in the framework of the FENNEC 2011 Special Observing period, are analysed. The aerosol optical depth on that day was in excess of 3. On the morning of June 21, dust lifting occurred at the passing of the African Easterly Waves over Mauritania with dust being raised by cold-pools issued from convective systems having developped the previous day. Behind this wave, the harmattan flow was channeled between the Hoggar and the Atlas and also generated dust. The dust production was amplified when this flow experienced further constriction between dusty density currents flowing down the Atlas slopes and an intense monsoon pulse from the west of the Hoggar also generating much dust. Two aircraft (the SAFIRE Falcon and the FAAM BAe 146)operated over Mauritania and Mali on that day enabled to document the complex interactions between the monsoon flow, the intertropical front, the density currents from the Atlas, in the SABL. AROME operational simulations werealso used to analyse how the different air masses have interacted to form the observed complex multi-layer dust structure in the SABL. Afternoon Falcon 20 and BAe 146 flights sampled the growth of the SABL. A clear influence of the cold pool and the dusty layers above can be observed on the developpement of the boundary layer. Finally, two AROME simulations (one with and one without prognostic dust) were used to investigate the influence of the complex dust layers on the dynamics/thermodynamics of the developping convective boundary layer over the Central Sahara