VACS Regional Activities and Projects
(Note: this page is in the process of being updated....)
| Project name & Web site |
PIs contact
|
Country | Description | Status & Timeline |
| VACS African Climate Atlas | R.Washington | UK | The development of an African Climate Atlas was identified early on in the life of the CLIVAR VACS panel as a potentially useful source of African climate information. The general idea was to build a web-based Atlas to provide basic plots of observed average climate variables over Africa and the surrounding oceans.
The Atlas currently has five parts, having evolved rather organically over the last four years. Part 1 provides the monthly and seasonal climatology (mean and standard deviation) of observed (0.5 degree resolution) rainfall, maximum, minimum and average temperature, diurnal temperature range, humidity and cloud cover for two different thirty year periods. Part 2 deals with the anomalies of these variables (a particular year minus the long term mean) for each year from 1901-2000 while Part 3 is dedicated to the TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrophotometer) Aerosol Index, which detects both atmospheric mineral dust loadings and smoke from biomass burning. Africa is the world’s largest source of mineral aerosols and these have been shown to influence the radiation budget and cloud characteristics, as well as human and ecosystem well-being. Some variables (e.g. winds, for which observed values are usually very scarce) from the data sets which are a mixture of models and the observed are available in Part 4 of the Atlas. Part 5 includes a list of useful FAQs about African Climate. |
Ongoing |
| CPT Workshop Series | R.Washington & Chris Reason | Multi |
Given the relative lack of resources, infrastructure and trained scientists in Africa, it is clear that a major priority for VACS has to be to facilitate appropriate training and capacity building in climate science on the continent. Following the CPT workshop held in Tanzania in 2006, it became clear that in order to develop a sustainable and effective climate prediction network throughout Africa, a series of workshops to “train the teachers” is required so as to build up a base level of skill in seasonal to interannual prediction using CPT. Once each sub-region, or country, has a skilled trainer in CPT available, then this person can transfer this expertise locally. |
Proposed |
Report of the GCOS Regional Workshop for Eastern and Southern Africa on Improving Observing Systems for Climate
Project name & Web site
PIs contact
Country
Description
Status & Timeline
Projects being Developed in Collaboration with VACS
East Africa Climate Study
Fred Semazzi (USA) and Laban Ogallo (Kenya)
Forward look
Other Projects Relevant to VACS
Data Rescue Project DARE
42 no-CILSS Countries
The Data Rescue (DARE) project, is aimed at assisting countries in the management, preservation and use of climatic data over their own territories. DARE commits to microfilm and microfiche, and eventually to digital media through CLICOM and other means, the original written manuscript records which may date back more than 100 years and in many cases are in danger of deteriorating and of being lost.
ONGOING
Started: 1989
Africa Upper-Air Data Rescue Project
Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger Senegal and Zambia
Surface and Upper Air climatological data Rescue for 14 West African countries namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Republic of Africa, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo.
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IDEAL - The International Decade for the East African Lakes
Thomas Johnson (USA) and Eric Odada (Kenya)
International
The International Decade for the East African Lakes (IDEAL) was conceived to bring together the scientific community working on the East African Lakes. The goals of IDEAL are to: retrieval a long, high resolution record of climate change in tropical East Africa; to establish a comprehensive training program for African students and scientists in a research partnership between African and northern hemisphere scientists; and to investigate the biogeochemistry and physical dynamics of the lakes to better understand the paleoclimate record and to aid in understanding the lakes as a unique regional resource.
ONGOING
Started: 1992
Zeus Long-Range Lightening Detection System
E. N. Anagnostou
USA and Greece
The experimental long-range lightning detection system (Zeus) is operating in Africa and Europe. The system consists of a network of ten Very Low Frequency (7-15 kHz) radio receivers (named “sferics”) spread over the European and African continents. The European and African network deployments were completed in the summers of 2001 and 2003, respectively. Since then lightning activity occurring over a large part of the globe is being continuously monitored at varying spatial accuracy (e.g. 10-20 km within and >50 km outside the network periphery) and high temporal (1 msec) resolution. This unprecedented dataset on convection presents a unique opportunity to advance water cycle research in the most active regions of earth (Africa, Amazon and ITCZ).
Field Programs
GCOS Observations
Eastern and Southern Africa
GCOS74
Kisumu, Kenya, 3 - 5 October 2001 Forward look
IGAD WHYCOS
Eastern Africa
The aim of IGAD-HYCOS is to strengthen the regional capacity to provide hydrological data and information and to develop regional co-operation for water resources assessment, monitoring and management
Forward look
GAW Mt Kenya
Eastern Africa
The Mt Kenya GAW (Global Atmospheric Watch) was commissioned on 5th October 2001. The program monitors background pollution through greenhouse gases and surface ozone levels in the region. This is the third GAW station in the African continent carrying out measurements with direct usage in climate change and adaptation research
ONGOING
Started October 2001
Prediction Activity and Applications
GHACOF-Regional Climate Forum
Laban Ogallo (Kenya)
Eastern Africa Countries
GHACOF12, Setp.-Dec. 2003
Consensus GHACOF12, June-Setp. 2003
GHACOF11, Mar.-May 2003
GHACOF10, Setp.-Dec. 2002
GHACOF9, Mar.-May 2002
GHACOF8, Sept.-Dec. 2001
Consensus GHACOF8, June-Sept. 2001
GHACOF7, Mar.-May 2001
GHACOF6, Oct-Dec 2000
ONGOING
PRESAC Regional Climate Forum
Abdallah Nassor (Climate Unit at ACMAD)
Central Africa Countries
PRESAC/01,
PRESAC/02
ONGOING
Institutions in the Region
Cherif Diop (Africa) Jean-Luc Redelsperger and Thierry Lebel (France) Doug Parker (UK) Andreas Fink (Germany) Chris Thorncroft (USA) and Peter Lamb Report of the GCOS Regional Workshop for Western and Central Africa on Improving Observing Systems for Climate
Project name
& Web site
PIs
contact
Country
Description
Status &
Timeline
Projects being Developed in Collaboration with VACS
Various:
International project
AMMA is a French initiative to identify and analyse in details the multidisciplinary and multi-scales processes that lead to a better understanding of the physical mechanism linked to the African Monsoon. The main components are: atmospheric dynamics, continental water cycle, atmospheric chemistry, oceanic and continental surface conditions.
Funded
Serge Janicot (FR) and Chris Thorncroft (USA)
France and UK
Evaluation of the ability of the atmospheric general circulation models participating in AMIP to simulate various aspects of the African Monsoon. Examination of intraseasonal, seasonal and interannual variability. Special focus on precipitations, easterly waves, African easterly jet and convective systems.
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Daily Rainfall Analysis Workshops
Chris Thorncroft (USA) and Laban Ogallo
Multinational
Forward look
Other Projects Relevant to VACS
CEOP - Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period
Sam Benedict (international coordinator)
Multinational
The first overall objective is to use enhanced observation to better document and simulate water and energy fluxes and reservoirs on diurnal to annual temporal scales and to better predict these on temporal scales up to seasonal for water resource applications. The second objective is to document the seasonal march of the monsoon systems, assess their driving mechanisms, and investigate their possible physical connections.
ONGOING
WAMP - West African Monsoon Project
Chris Throncroft (Coordinator)
EU Fp4
WAMP is a three-year project started in Dec. 1997. The aim is to increase our understanding of the processes involved in the evolution of the West African monsoon with special emphasis on interannual variability of rainfall, scale interactions and tropical land-based convection.
1997-2000 Finished
PROMISE - Predictability and variability of monsoons and the agricultural and hydrological impacts of climate change
Julia Slingo (coordinator)
EU Fp5
It is a three-year research project funded by EU to study the potential for seasonal prediction and the benefits that would accrue in terms of the management of water resources and agriculture; the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on tropical countries, in particular on the availability of water resources for human use, and on the productivity of crops and the potential changes in the natural vegetation.
ONGOING
Started in 2000
CLIMAG - Climate Prediction and Agriculture: West Africa Demonstration Project
Amy Freise (START Secretariat)
Intergovernamental
The project is designed to explore and demonstrate the use of improved seasonal climate forcasting capabilities, developed through global change research in application to agricultural systems.
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Africa Upper-Air Data Rescue Project
Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger Senegal and Zambia
Surface and Upper Air climatological data Rescue for 14 West African countries namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Republic of Africa, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo.
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Data Rescue Project DARE
CILSS countries
The DARE project in WEST Africa, funded primarily by Belgium, dates back to 1979 and the Belgium-supported phase was terminated in mid 1997. It has resulted in more than five million documents from more than 30 countries being saved on microfilm.
1979 - 1997
FINISHED
Field Programs
CATCH - Coupling Tropical Atmosphere and Hydrologic Cycle
not clear
France, Nigeria and Benin
CATCH is a multi-scale program: the West Africa as a whole was considered for studying the structure and the variability of large atmospheric entities, such as the jets, the easterly waves and the convective complexes that propagate over several hudred to a few thousands kilometers. A 5° by 9° regional window is defined as reference area to compare outputs of various atmospheric models with obs. Two focus area at lower scale were selected for fine resolution measurements
Finished
IMPETUS
M. Christoph (Ger.)
Germany, Benin and Morocco
The goals of the project are the construction of quality-controlled rainfall climatologies and a real-time rainfall monitoring system for tropical West Africa. In addition a hierarchy of nested models will be established that will be able to simulate the present-day climate of west Africa and the HVO region realistically.
ONGOING
JET2000
D. Parker and Chris Throncroft (PIs)
UK
The project capitalised on the fact that in the summer 2000 the Meteorological Research Flight C-130 aircraft was stationed in Cape Verde, and was available to make observations over West Africa. Four flights were performed, involving transects along and across the jet and the baroclinic zone, to make observations of unprecedented resolution for this area.
Finished
HAPEX SAHEL
PIs
French leading
HAPEX-Sahel is an international land-surface-atmosphere observation program that was undertaken in western Niger. The overall aims were to improve our understanding of the role of the Sahel on the general circulation, in particular the effects of the large interannual fluctuations of land surface conditions in this region and, in turn, to develop ideas about the general circulation is related to the persistent droughts.
Finished
GCOS Report
Western and Central Africa
GCOS85
Niamey, Niger, 27 - 29 March 2003
Forward Look
Prediction Activity and Applications
PRESAO - Regional Climate Forum
Abdallah Nassor (Climate Unit at ACMAD)
West African Countries
PRESAO-01, Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire) 4 -8 May 1998
PRESAO-02, Dakar (Senegal) 7-9 June 1999
PRESAO-03, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) 8-13 May 2000
PRESAO-04, Niamey 24 May 2001
PRESAO-05, Niamey 6 June 2002
PRESAO-06,
PRESAO-07, Gambia June 2004
ONGOING
Institutions in the Region
Given its location, southern Africa is effected by variability associated with the Atlantic, Indian and Southern Oceans as well as from the tropical Pacific via the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In addition, it is a region characterised by strong gradients in topography, rainfall, soil moisture and vegetation as well as sea surface temperature (SST) and winds in the neighbouring oceanic areas. It is likely that the location as well as the surface gradients characteristic of the southern African region play a major role in influencing the climate variability experienced by the sub-continent as well as posing problems for predicting its climate. SAGRADEX will address the role that these surface forcing gradients play in determining the climate of southern Africa, its variability, and its predictability. In order to elucidate the impact of these surface gradients on the regional climate, SAGRADEX will primarily be based around the analysis of existing data sets combined with model (including coupled climate model) studies and appropriate field studies as resources permit. A further aspect of the programme will be to tailor regional models of the ocean and land surface to improve the simulation of the regional climate, and to validate these models using data acquired during dedicated field studies. SAGRADEX is envisaged to feed directly into seasonal to interannual climate prediction efforts over southern Africa and associated societal impacts. Report of the GCOS Regional Workshop for Eastern and Southern Africa on Improving Observing Systems for Climate
Project name & Web site
PIs contact
Country
Description
Status & Timeline
Projects being Developed in Collaboration with VACS
SAGRADEX
Chris Reason
Southern Africa
Proposed
Other Projects Relevant to VACS
Data Rescue Project DARE
42 no-CILSS Countries
The Data Rescue (DARE) project, is aimed at assisting countries in the management, preservation and use of climatic data over their own territories. DARE commits to microfilm and microfiche, and eventually to digital media through CLICOM and other means, the original written manuscript records which may date back more than 100 years and in many cases are in danger of deteriorating and of being lost.
ONGOING
Started: 1989
Field Programs
GCOS Observations
Eastern and Southern Africa
GCOS74
Kisumu, Kenya, 3 - 5 October 2001 Forward look
Prediction Activity and Applications
SARCOF-Regional Climate Forum
B.J. Garanganga
Southern Africa Countries
The Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF) is a regional seasonal weather outlook prediction and application process adopted by the fourteen countries comprising the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in conjunction with other partners. See summary of applications
ONGOING
Building the role of seasonal forecasts in South Africa
E. Archer and G. Ziervogel
South Africa
This NOAA-OGP funded projects focus on strengthening climate info system to support decision-making & response options: assessment of end users, gap analysis of the South African Early Warning System.
ONGOING
Mitigating the Effects of Hydro-Climatic Extremes on Southern Africa
E. Archer
Southern Africa Countries in partnetship with IRI and WMO
This USAID funded project aims at improving the role of climate prediction in serving the agricultural sector in the Southern African region. In particular diagnosing problems related to the dissimination & interpretation of climate information.
ONGOING
Climate Outlooks and Agent-Based Simulation of Adaptation in Africa
R. Whashington
Southern Africa Countries
This project is funded by the Tyndall Centre will develop an innovative modelling framework that integrates social responses to climate events and climate predictions on a continuum of time-scales, thereby enabling the exploration of adaptation as a learning process. The methodology will be applied using a southern African case study because Africa is arguably the continent most vulnerable to climate change, and southern Africa is an area where seasonal climate prediction is already operational.
ONGOING
Institutions in the Region
Project name & Web site
PIs contact
Country
Description
Status & Timeline
Other Projects Relevant to VACS
Data Rescue Project
Zeus Long-Range Lightening Detection System
E. N. Anagnostou
USA and Greece
The experimental long-range lightning detection system (Zeus) is operating in Africa and Europe. The system consists of a network of ten Very Low Frequency (7-15 kHz) radio receivers (named “sferics”) spread over the European and African continents. The European and African network deployments were completed in the summers of 2001 and 2003, respectively. Since then lightning activity occurring over a large part of the globe is being continuously monitored at varying spatial accuracy (e.g. 10-20 km within and >50 km outside the network periphery) and high temporal (1 msec) resolution. This unprecedented dataset on convection presents a unique opportunity to advance water cycle research in the most active regions of earth (Africa, Amazon and ITCZ).
Prediction Activity
PRESA-NOR Regional Climate Forum
Abdallah Nassor (Climate Unit at ACMAD)
Northern African Countries
PRESA-NOR/01,
PRESA-NOR/02,ONGOING
Project name & Web site
PIs contact
Country
Description
Status & Timeline
Atlantic Ocean Links
Indian Ocean Links
Regional Initiatives