Conference programme and themes

Conference Programme

Programme (November 16 2007, for download, pdf, 0,5 MB)

Plenary sessions covered the main conference themes after a general introduction to AMMA and invited talks on the state of the art of the West African Monsoon.

Parallel and poster sessions covered processes (e.g. atmospheric boundary layer, convection and dynamics; oceanic and land-surface processes; chemistry and aerosols processes and interactions with dynamics), integrative science (regional and global modelling: simulations for the 20th & 21st centuries; high impact weather prediction and predictability; reanalysis and data impact studies) as well impacts (prediction of climate impacts, land productivity and water resources; human processes, adaptation and environmental interactions; health).

Conference Themes

The 2nd International AMMA Conference had four main themes extended by parallel and poster sessions.

•  West African Monsoon including aerosols, chemistry and ocean

The two-way interactions between the West African Monsoon (WAM) and the rest of the globe are important for determining the variability of the WAM and its global impacts on intraseasonal-to-decadal time-scales. This requires an understanding of the WAM processes, includ-ing mechanisms (e.g. physical, chemical and dynamical) at the regional scale.
Research areas under this theme include (i) Variability and predictability of the WAM (nature and role of teleconnections, intraseasonal variability including easterly waves, predictability issues and the role of the ocean, detection of the global change), (ii) Monsoon processes (scale interactions, the seasonal cycle and the monsoon onset, emissions of trace gases and aerosols, their transport and transformation), and (iii) Global impacts of the WAM (e.g. on tropical cyclones, aerosol variability, atmospheric chemistry).

Coordinators: B. Bourles, S. Janicot, J. Pelon, C. Reeves, B. Vogel

•  Water cycle and surface-atmosphere feedbacks

Understanding the global water cycle and its change due to natural and anthropogenic factors is of critical importance as the availability of water is one of the most limiting parameters for life, agriculture and economic development, especially in the Sahel. A better understanding of the water cycle in the coupled oceanic, atmospheric and continental system will be beneficial for weather and climate forecasting and the management of impacts. It is thus a major issue for AMMA.
Topics under this theme include (i) Analysing the water budgets at regional scale and mesoscale, ii) Investigating how best to combine the various sources of measurements to compute these budgets, depend-ing on the scale of interest, and iii) Studying the processes generating feedbacks in the water cycle, which control the impact of oceanic, atmospheric or continental perturbations on water availability.
This latter topic is of particular interest since models suggest that West Africa is a “hot-spot” of land-atmosphere interaction. However, the chain of processes causing these strong interactions is poorly under-stood, and not well represented in models. The conference will provide the opportunity to present new studies which explore the coupling at a regional and mesoscale in relation to the water cycle.

Coordinators: A. Gaye, T. Lebel, J.L. Redelsperger, C. Taylor

•  Climate impacts

A major aim of AMMA is to develop the underpinning science that supports the practical use of climate information in improving health, water resources, food security/agriculture and other key climate-sensitive sectors in West African countries by, for example, helping to identify the relevant climate/environment monitoring, prediction and adaptation strategies. AMMA ensures strong linkages between the work taking place on impacts and that taking place on observed variability and predictability of the WAM.

Coordinators: B. Fontaine, H. Karambiri, A. Morse, I. Sandholt

•  Forecasting at all scales and its applications

We are hindered in producing skilful predictions in the West African region due to a combination of gaps in our knowledge, gaps in the operational observing system and problems in the way models handle the key scale interactions that characterize the coupled West African monsoon system. These problems are shared by both the “weather prediction community” and the “climate change projection community”. Due to the underlying dynamical processes and to their interaction with vegetation, ocean and chemistry, the WAM region is an ideal area for testing the skill of weather to climate “forecasting” systems, for understanding how much can be achieved through parameterizations or how much we need to consider the use of cloud resolving models for checking tailored forecast products.
Research topics under this theme include: (i) The skill of current seasonal to decadal ensemble predictions, sensitivity to the interaction with extra tropics and other tropical areas, (ii) Data assimilation, modelling and targeted measurement strategies to improve the pre-diction of weather and climate, (iii) Auditing of climate models (global and regional) in order to assess their degree of self-consistency and realism in present climate (XX century) and scenarios (XXI century), (iv) Weather and climate forecast products: reliability and effectiveness, (v) High impact weather over Africa and downstream: process and predictability studies.

Coordinators: E. Afiesimama, P. Ruti, C. Thorncroft, Y. Xue

AMMA-Ocean / TACE / PIRATA meeting up

The AMMA-Ocean/TACE/PIRATA meeting was held between 27 and 30 November 2007. This meeting will focus on ocean studies particularly discussing the role of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean in the climate system. Four afternoon sessions addressed the following topics: (i) Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone and Tropical Atlantic Variability (TAV), (ii) Air-sea coupling, sea surface temperature and ocean mixed layer heat budget, (iii) Prediction and predictability of TAV, (iv) Tropical ocean circulation (e.g. oxygen minimum zones, tropical instbility waves and equatorial wave dynamics). The morning sessions was dedicated to special topics like the status and development of the observation system in the tropical Atlantic.

Coordinators: B. Bourlès, P. Brandt, C. Eden, M. Jochum, B. Johns, N. Keenlyside

2nd THORPEX Africa Planning meeting up

This meeting was held just before the conference on 23 and 24 November 2007 at the University of Karlsruhe. The meeting focused on finalising the draft THORPEX Plan for Africa and agreeing the priority implementation topics as well as the structure to oversee implementation of the Plan.

Coordinators: J. Caughey, S. Jones, A. Kamga

Languages up

English and French were the conference languages, with simultaneous translation provided during plenary sessions.