Ning Zeng, J. David Neelin
Department of Atmospheric Sciences and
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
University of California, Los Angeles
K.-M. Lau and C. J. Tucker
NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
The role of naturally varying vegetation in influencing the climate variability in the Sahel is explored in a coupled atmosphere-land-vegetation model. The Sahel rainfall variability is influenced by sea surface temperature (SST) variations in the oceans. Land-surface feedback is found to increase this variability both on interannual and interdecadal time scales. Interactive vegetation enhances the interdecadal variation significantly, but can reduce year to year variability due to a phase lag introduced by the relatively slow vegetation adjustment time. Variations in vegetation accompany the changes in rainfall, in particular, the multi-decadal drying trend from the 1950s to the 80s.