Aerosols and Precipitation Over Africa

Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

1st Edition, Volume 7 - March 14, 2025
Editors: Akintomide A. Akinsanola, Adeyemi A. Adebiyi
Language: English
Paperback ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 1 4 0 5 0 - 1
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 1 4 0 5 1 - 8

Aerosols and Precipitation Over Africa: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects provides a clear picture of the complex interactions between aerosols and precipitation over Africa. T… Read more

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Aerosols and Precipitation Over Africa: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects provides a clear picture of the complex interactions between aerosols and precipitation over Africa. The text begins with a close look at aerosol distribution, observational and modeling techniques, and climate models. This is followed by an examination of the effect of aerosol on precipitation and the latest advances in aerosol-precipitation studies. The editors then review regional and largescale variability. Later chapters include a climatological assessment of aerosol and precipitation properties, projected changes in precipitation and cloud patterns, and expected challenges for the future.

With these interactions confounded by the large-scale dynamical systems over the continent, this book will provide a much-needed, detailed understanding of the complex connections between aerosol and precipitation over Africa. It will be a valuable resource for environmental researchers, academics, and policymakers studying the latest developments in aerosols and precipitation over Africa.

Members of the Royal Meteorological Society are eligible for a 35% discount on all Developments in Weather and Climate Science series titles. See the RMetS member dashboard for the discount code.

Title of Book
Cover image
Title page
Table of Contents
Copyright
Contributors
Chapter 1: Aerosols over Africa: sources, properties, and distribution
1.1. Introduction
1.1.1. Overview of aerosols
1.1.2. African aerosols
1.2. Dust aerosols over Africa
1.2.1. Sources and emission of dust aerosols
1.2.2. Climatological distribution of dust aerosols
1.2.3. Properties of dust aerosols
1.3. Carbonaceous aerosols over Africa
1.3.1. Sources and emission of carbonaceous aerosols
1.3.2. Climatological distribution of carbonaceous aerosols
1.3.3. Properties of carbonaceous aerosols
1.4. Marine aerosols near Africa
1.4.1. Source and emission of marine aerosols
1.4.2. Climatological distribution of marine aerosols
1.4.3. Properties of marine aerosols
1.5. Sulfate aerosols over Africa
1.5.1. Sources and emission of sulfate aerosols
1.5.2. Climatological distribution of sulfate aerosols
1.5.3. Properties of sulfate aerosols
1.6. Summary
Author contributions
Chapter 2: Aerosol impacts on the West African Monsoon
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Climatic effects of aerosols
2.2.1. Aerosol interactions with radiation and cloud microphysics
2.2.2. Aerosol perturbation and feedbacks in a simple atmospheric-column framework
2.2.3. Aerosol perturbation and feedbacks at regional to global scales, effective radiative forcing
2.3. Aerosol impacts on the West African Monsoon (WAM) system
2.3.1. The WAM system
2.3.2. Dust aerosol and WAM interactions
2.3.3. Biomass-burning aerosol and WAM interactions
2.3.4. Impact of regional and global anthropogenic aerosol sources on the WAM
2.4. Regional aerosol trends and projections in Africa
2.4.1. Dust sources
2.4.2. Biomass burning and anthropogenic sources
2.5. Conclusion
Chapter 3: Impacts of dust aerosols on the climate of the tropical Atlantic
3.1. Introduction
3.2. General characteristics of dust aerosols
3.3. Dust direct radiative effect
3.4. Dust indirect effect
3.5. Dust semidirect effect
3.6. Dust trends and variability
3.7. Dust impacts on precipitation
3.8. Dust impacts on tropical cyclones
3.9. Dust impacts on wave activity
3.9.1. Dynamics of the AEJ–AEWs system
3.9.2. Relationships between dust radiative effects and the AEW's energetics
3.10. Limitations of tools for dust–climate interaction research
3.11. Summary
Chapter 4: Precipitation distribution over Africa: observations and modeling
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Study area, data, and methods
4.2.1. Study area
4.2.2. Data and methods
4.3. Results and discussion
4.3.1. Precipitation climatology: seasonal and interannual variabilities
4.3.2. Spatial distribution of precipitation characteristics: onset and cessation dates
4.3.3. Climatology of some extreme precipitation indices
4.4. Summary, socioeconomic implications, and conclusion
Data availability
Code availability
Chapter 5: Recent trends of clouds over Africa
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Methods
5.2.1. Data sources
5.2.2. Regional analysis
5.3. Results
5.3.1. Spatial distributions and trends of cloud areas
5.3.2. Spatial distributions and trends of cloud pressure and temperature
5.3.3. Spatial distributions and trends of cloud liquid- and ice-water path
5.4. Discussion and conclusions
Data availability
Funding
Chapter 6: Future changes in precipitation distributions over Africa
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Data and method
6.3. Precipitation across Africa: climatology and future changes
6.3.1. West Africa
6.3.2. East Africa
6.3.3. Central Africa
6.3.4. Southern Africa
6.4. Cloud–aerosol-precipitation feedback
6.4.1. Brief description of the feedback between aerosol loading, cloud cover, and precipitation
6.4.2. Future change in aerosols and its role in African precipitation
6.5. Summary
6.6. Future prospects
6.6.1. Biases and model horizontal and vertical resolution
6.6.2. Identifying sources of precipitation changes uncertainty
Data availability statement
Chapter 7: Detection and attribution of climate change impacts in Africa
7.1. Introduction
7.1.1. Background
7.2. Advances in climate-change attribution science
7.3. Main methods of climate-extremes attribution
7.3.1. Forecast model-based method
7.3.2. Climate model-based method
7.4. Case studies of climate-hazards attribution in Africa
7.4.1. North Africa December–February 2009/2010 severe heat event
7.4.2. Case study 2: South Africa 2018 summer drought attribution
7.5. Conclusion
Index

Akintomide A. Akinsanola

Dr. Akinsanola, is a meteorologist and climate scientist who is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). He also holds a joint appointment position at the Environmental Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory. He received his PhD (Climate Science) from the City University of Hong Kong. His PhD thesis and his current research focuses on utilizing varieties of climate models and observations to better understand climate dynamics. Prior to joining UIC, Akintomide was an Assistant Atmospheric Scientist and Postdoctoral Appointee at ANL, and postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Geography, University of Georgia, USA. In summer 2018, he was a Visiting Scholar at Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen. He has also worked for many years as a lecturer at the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, FUTA. He currently leads as co-chair, the CLIVAR/GEWEX monsoon panel’s working group on African monsoon.

Affiliations and expertise

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago, USA

Adeyemi A. Adebiyi

Dr. Adeyemi Adebiyi is an atmospheric scientist at the Assistant Professor rank in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences at University of California - Merced, and he is also a member of the Environmental Systems Graduate Group at the same university. Before joining UC Merced, he was a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California - Los Angeles. He obtained his M.Sc.-equivalent diploma in Earth System Physics at the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, and his Ph.D. in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the University of Miami, Florida. Dr. Adebiyi's research focuses on understanding the impacts of atmospheric aerosols, such as dust and smoke, on the regional and global climate, including the impacts on aerosols on radiation, clouds, and meteorology.

Affiliations and expertise

Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California - Merced, USA

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