Subproject 4 (SP4): Mean-state influence on Benguela Niño characteristics - observed trends and future projections

SP4 focuses on the relationship between the mean state of the Southeastern Tropical Atlantic Ocean and characteristics of Benguela Niño events

Goals:

• Understanding the relationship between changes in the mean state of the Southeastern Tropical Atlantic Ocean that have been observed over the past decades and that are projected for the future and characteristics of Benguela Niño events with respect to frequency, strength, location and impacts.

• Analysis of Reanalysis products and observations in order to derive a relationship between the mean-state and interannual variability in the Angola-Benguela region during the past decades

• perform FOCI coupled model simulations with regionally enhanced ocean model resolution and different CO₂ forcing to investigate changes projected for the next decades
  
  

  Figure adapted from Prigent et al. (2020): Difference of ORA-S4 standard deviation of SST (˚C) anomalies between 2000–2017 and 1982–1999. The Angola-Benguela-Area (ABA) is depicted in red. Dots represent where standard deviation of the SSTa of the two periods are significantly different at the 95%-level according to the Welch’s t test.

Team:

Principal Investigators:
Prof. Dr. M. Latif, GEOMAR Kiel, Germany
Prof. Dr. J. Lübbecke, GEOMAR Kiel, Germany

Associated Staff:
M.Sc A. Prigent, GEOMAR Kiel, Germany