The large-scale water cycle of the West African monsoon

Olivier Bock (1, 2) , F. Guichard (3) , Remi Meynadier (4) , Sébastien Gervois (4) , A. Agustí-Panareda (5) , A. Beljaars (5) , A. Boone (3) , M. Nuret (3) , J.-L. Redelsperger (3) , P. Roucou (6)

1 LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
2 LAREG - LAboratoire de Recherche en Géodésie
3 CNRM - Centre national de recherches météorologiques
4 SPACE - LATMOS
5 ECMWF - European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
6 CRC - Centre de Recherches de Climatologie

The vertically integrated water budget of West Africa is investigated with a hybrid dataset based on observational and modelling products elaborated by the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) and with several numerical weather prediction (NWP) products including the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) AMMA reanalysis. Seasonal and intraseasonal variations are quantified over the period 2002-2007. Links between the budget terms are analyzed regionally, from the Guinean coast to the Sahel zone. Water budgets from the NWP systems are intercompared and evaluated against the hybrid dataset. Large deficiencies are evidenced in all the NWP products. Hypotheses are proposed about their origins and several improvements are foreseen

Mots clés: AMMA; Water budget; GPS; Numerical weather prediction; West African monsoon; Water cycle

Domaines: Climatologie; Milieux et Changements globaux; Météorologie

Olivier Bock, F. Guichard, Remi Meynadier, Sébastien Gervois, A. Agustí-Panareda, et al.. The large-scale water cycle of the West African monsoon. Atmospheric Science Letters, 2011, 12 (1), pp.51-57. ⟨10.1002/asl.288⟩. ⟨hal-00548132⟩