Regional Model Studies of African Wave Disturbances and Sahel Climate Variability, Part II

这笔赠款支持的研究将产生一套新的气候分析，通过缩小NCEP再分析到西非的0.5网格与PI的区域气候模型（RM）的最新版本。将系统地验证和评价记录管理产品的20个季节，并将记录雨季和干旱综合数据之间的差异。非洲波扰动（AWD）的特点，周期性，振幅，发生频率和相关的降水模式将分析每个模拟夏季和降雨和干燥条件之间的差异注意。将确定从行星到区域尺度的相关气候机制，以增加我们对它们如何影响萨赫勒季节性降雨年际变化的理解。设计了一个实验，以评估通过降尺度技术在气候特征的空间定义方面取得的改进。轻推和定期重新初始化的相对优势将被测试。 该项目将以如此高的水平分辨率提供西非夏季气候的第一个三维气候学，并将为AWD的特征和其他重要的天气特征提供新的见解。将通过验证实验性的季节后报来寻求减轻不利气候事件的负面社会影响的潜力，通过使用GISS GCM季节预测来驱动RM。更广泛的影响：PI是美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心支持的纽约市大都会区研究计划（NYCRI）外展计划中的科学家导师候选人。该项目将为来自大纽约地区各机构的大学和高中学生及教师团队提供丰富的研究经验。纽约国际研究所暑期研究所定于2003年6月开始。PI将帮助学生了解前沿研究，让他们有机会亲身体验专业的科学研究。教师将根据他们的夏季研究制定学习单元，并在学年期间在他们的课程中实施，从而使最终受益于与赞助研究有关的外联工作的学生人数成倍增加。

This grant supports research that will produce a new set of climate analyses by downscaling NCEP reanalyzes to a 0.5 grid over West Africa with the latest version of the PI's Regional Climate Model (RM). Twenty seasons of the RM product will be systematically validated and evaluated and differences between rainy and drought composites will be documented. African Wave Disturbances (AWD) characteristics, periodicities, amplitudes, frequency of occurrence and associated precipitation patterns will be analyzed for each simulated summer and differences between rainy and dry conditions noted. Relevant climate mechanisms, from planetary to regional scales will be identified to increase our understanding of how they influence the interannual variability of Sahel seasonal rainfall. An experiment has been designed to evaluate the improvements in the spatial definition of climate features achieved by the downscaling technique. The relative advantages of nudging and periodic reinitialization will be tested. The project will provide the first 3-D climatology of the West African summer climate at such a high horizontal resolution and will offer new insights into the characteristics of AWDs, and other important synoptic features. The potential to mitigate the negative social impacts of adverse climate events will be pursued by validating experimental seasonal hindcasts, made by driving the RM with GISS GCM seasonal predictions. Broader Impacts: The PIs are scientist mentor candidates in a New York City Metropolitan Area Research Initiative (NYCRI) outreach program supported by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The project will provide research enrichment experiences for teams of college and high school students and teachers from institutions in the Greater New York Region. The NYCRI Summer Research Institute is scheduled to begin in June 2003. The PIs will help introduce students to cutting edge research, giving them a hands-on opportunity to experience professional scientific research. The teachers would formulate learning units, based on their summer research, which will be implemented in their courses during the academic year, thereby multiplying the number of students who eventually benefit from the outreach effort connected with the sponsored research.