SASSCAL WeatherNet to support regional weather monitoring and climate-related research in Southern Africa

Helmschrot, Jörg; Muche, Gerhard; Hillmann, Tobias E.; Kanyanga, Joseph; Butale, M.; Nascimento, Domingos; Kruger, Steve; Strohbach, Ben J.; Seely, Mary; Ribeiro, Carlos Eduardo Parente; Clercq, Willem de; Kenabatho, Piet; Josenhans, K.; Jürgens, Norbert

doi:10.5194/piahs-366-170-2015

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The number of observations being fed into reanalysis products in tropical southern Africa is limited, and so the reanalysis products rely heavily on their modeled components and assimilation schemes in these regions. Therefore, we study the representations of the CAB at eight AWSs in the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) network (http:// www.sasscalweathernet.org) across Angola and Zambia, and the KD at nine stations across Namibia and Zambia (Helmschrot et al 2015). Summaries of these sites are given in Table 1, and a map of their locations is shown in Fig.…”

Section: Properties Of the Cab And Kdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drylines in Southern Africa: Rediscovering the Congo Air Boundary

Howard

Washington

2019

Journal of Climate

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Projected rainfall decline in southern Africa is likely to be highly sensitive to subtleties in the local atmospheric circulation. In an effort to understand the regional circulation complexities, a novel algorithm is developed to identify the Congo air boundary (CAB) in ERA-5, a high-resolution reanalysis dataset. The CAB, a forgotten feature of the circulation, is defined in the austral spring and early summer, using surface humidity gradients and near-surface wind convergence lines, and it is found to be an indicator of the location of the southern edge of the African rain belt. A related convergence-line and dryline feature, described in this paper as the Kalahari discontinuity (KD), is also identified. It is established that either a dryline CAB or KD is present in southern Africa for over 95% of days between August and December, with arc lengths typically exceeding 10°. The seasonal and diurnal cycles of the CAB and the KD are presented, and their prevalence in station observational data is confirmed. The interannual variability of the CAB latitude and detection frequency is found to explain at least 55% of interannual spring rainfall variability in southern Africa between 15° to 25°S. Links are established with the Angola and Kalahari heat lows and tropical temperate trough events.

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Section: Properties Of the Cab And Kdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drylines in Southern Africa: Rediscovering the Congo Air Boundary

Howard

Washington

2019

Journal of Climate

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“…In large areas of the SASSCAL region (more so in the northern than in the southern parts), the coverage of operating AWSs in 2010 was below one station per 100,000 km². This was a very poor overall spatial coverage compared to the geographical diversity within the SASSCAL region (Helmschrot et al, 2015;. Except for in South Africa, which has a dense weather observation network, the majority of the stations in the other SASSCAL countries were located at major airports and cities while vast areas that are highly relevant for the formation of important meteorological processes were not covered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The SASSCAL AWSs have been installed at diff erent stages during the SASSCAL initiative. The fi rst installations date back to 2010, replacing earlier devices (Jürgens et al, 2010). In 2013, a workshop was held in Windhoek, Namibia, to systematically expand the network with the participation of national meteorological services, ministries, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) representatives, scientists, and representatives of the funding agency to assess the current situation and identify the most pressing needs.…”

Section: Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

SASSCAL WeatherNet: present state, challenges, and achievements of the regional climatic observation network and database

Muche¹,

Kruger²,

Hillmann³

et al. 2018

Biodivers. Ecol.

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“…In this section we describe the verification of the new MERRA2-based ET 0 dataset against station-based observations derived from the SASSCAL network ( www.sasscal.org ) 30 – 32 . The ET 0 values of the two data sets are compared both regionally and seasonally, using time series of station-based dekadal ET 0 .…”

Section: Technical Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global long-term daily reanalysis of reference evapotranspiration for drought and food-security monitoring

Hobbins,

Jansma,

Sarmiento

et al. 2023

Sci Data

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NOAA has developed a global reference evapotranspiration (ET0) reanalysis using the UN Food and Agriculture Organization formulation (FAO-56) of the Penman-Monteith equation forced by MERRA phase 2 (MERRA2) meteorological and radiative drivers. The NOAA ET0 reanalysis is provided daily from January 1, 1980 to the near-present at a resolution of 0.5° latitude × 0.625° longitude. The reanalysis is verified against station data across southern Africa, a region presenting both significant challenges regarding hydroclimatic variability and observational quantity and quality and significant potential benefits to food-insecure populations. These data are generated from observations from the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) network. We further verified globally against spatially distributed ET0 derived from two reanalyses–the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) and Princeton Global Forcing (PGF)–and these verifications produced similar results, yet demonstrated wide regional and seasonal differences. We also present cases that verify the operational applicability of the reanalysis in long-established drought, famine, crop- and pastoral-stress metrics, and in predictability assessments of drought forecasts.

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SASSCAL WeatherNet to support regional weather monitoring and climate-related research in Southern Africa

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Drylines in Southern Africa: Rediscovering the Congo Air Boundary

Drylines in Southern Africa: Rediscovering the Congo Air Boundary

SASSCAL WeatherNet: present state, challenges, and achievements of the regional climatic observation network and database

A global long-term daily reanalysis of reference evapotranspiration for drought and food-security monitoring

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