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Study Supplies Insight into Behavior of African Monsoon
http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2015/02/study-supplies-insight-into-behavior-of-african-monsoon[font face=Serif][font size=5]Study Supplies Insight into Behavior of African Monsoon[/font]
Posted on February 2, 2015
[font size=3]Think of the Sahara and you will conjure images of a vast desert landscape, with nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. But for a period of about 10,000 years, the Sahara was characterized by lush, green vegetation and a network of lakes, rivers and deltas.
This “green Sahara” occurred between 14,800 and 5,500 years ago during what is known as the “African Humid Period.” Why and how it ended is the subject of scientific study that holds important information for predicting the region’s response to future climate change.
In a study published Jan. 26 in Nature Geoscience, a team of researchers provides new insight into the behavior of the African monsoon at the end of the African Humid Period and the factors that caused it to collapse.
“Our work suggests that the African monsoon’s response to climate forcing is more complicated than previously understood,” said lead author Tim Shanahan, assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. “Really big forcings like a collapse in the circulation of the Atlantic can cause synchronous drought across North Africa – and the current generation of climate models do a very good job at simulating events like this.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2329
Posted on February 2, 2015
[font size=3]Think of the Sahara and you will conjure images of a vast desert landscape, with nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. But for a period of about 10,000 years, the Sahara was characterized by lush, green vegetation and a network of lakes, rivers and deltas.
This “green Sahara” occurred between 14,800 and 5,500 years ago during what is known as the “African Humid Period.” Why and how it ended is the subject of scientific study that holds important information for predicting the region’s response to future climate change.
In a study published Jan. 26 in Nature Geoscience, a team of researchers provides new insight into the behavior of the African monsoon at the end of the African Humid Period and the factors that caused it to collapse.
“Our work suggests that the African monsoon’s response to climate forcing is more complicated than previously understood,” said lead author Tim Shanahan, assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. “Really big forcings like a collapse in the circulation of the Atlantic can cause synchronous drought across North Africa – and the current generation of climate models do a very good job at simulating events like this.
…[/font][/font]
