TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering on Meteorological Droughts in West Africa
AU - Alamou, Adéchina Eric
AU - Obada, Ezéchiel
AU - Biao, Eliézer Iboukoun
AU - Josuézandagba, Esdras Babadjidé
AU - Da-Allada, Casimir Y.
AU - Bonou, Frederic K.
AU - Baloïtcha, Ezinvi
AU - Tilmes, Simone
AU - Irvine, Peter J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - This study assesses changes in meteorological droughts in West Africa under a high green-house gas scenario, i.e., a representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5), and under a scenario of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering (SAG) deployment. Using simulations from the Geoengi-neering Large Ensemble (GLENS) project that employed stratospheric sulfate aerosols injection to keep global mean surface temperature, as well as the interhemispheric and equator-to-pole temperature gradients at the 2020 level (present-day climate), we investigated the impact of SAG on meteorological droughts in West Africa. Analysis of the meteorological drought characteristics (number of drought events, drought duration, maximum length of drought events, severity of the greatest drought events and intensity of the greatest drought event) revealed that over the period from 2030– 2049 and under GLENS simulations, these drought characteristics decrease in most regions in comparison to the RCP8.5 scenarios. On the contrary, over the period from 2070–2089 and under GLENS simulations, these drought characteristics increase in most regions compared to the results from the RCP8.5 scenarios. Under GLENS, the increase in drought characteristics is due to a decrease in pre-cipitation. The decrease in precipitation is largely driven by weakened monsoon circulation due to the reduce of land–sea thermal contrast in the lower troposphere.
AB - This study assesses changes in meteorological droughts in West Africa under a high green-house gas scenario, i.e., a representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5), and under a scenario of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering (SAG) deployment. Using simulations from the Geoengi-neering Large Ensemble (GLENS) project that employed stratospheric sulfate aerosols injection to keep global mean surface temperature, as well as the interhemispheric and equator-to-pole temperature gradients at the 2020 level (present-day climate), we investigated the impact of SAG on meteorological droughts in West Africa. Analysis of the meteorological drought characteristics (number of drought events, drought duration, maximum length of drought events, severity of the greatest drought events and intensity of the greatest drought event) revealed that over the period from 2030– 2049 and under GLENS simulations, these drought characteristics decrease in most regions in comparison to the RCP8.5 scenarios. On the contrary, over the period from 2070–2089 and under GLENS simulations, these drought characteristics increase in most regions compared to the results from the RCP8.5 scenarios. Under GLENS, the increase in drought characteristics is due to a decrease in pre-cipitation. The decrease in precipitation is largely driven by weakened monsoon circulation due to the reduce of land–sea thermal contrast in the lower troposphere.
KW - Climate change
KW - GLENS simulations
KW - Meteorological droughts
KW - Stratospheric aerosol geoengineering
KW - West Africa
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85124076281
U2 - 10.3390/atmos13020234
DO - 10.3390/atmos13020234
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85124076281
SN - 2073-4433
VL - 13
JO - Atmosphere
JF - Atmosphere
IS - 2
M1 - 234
ER -