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This study analyzes the relationships between the onset, the duration, and the maximum extent of the Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) using ERA5 reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) over the period 1979–2019. After calculating the start and end dates of the ACT each year, this study investigates potential relationships between early or late onset that may be linked to the maximum duration and extent of the ACT, which is known to influence weather patterns and precipitation in surrounding regions and the West African Monsoon System. Results show that 68% of years with a short ACT duration are associated with a late-onset ACT, while 70% of years with a long ACT duration are associated with early ACT onset years. In addition, 63% of years with a short duration of ACT have a cold tongue with a low maximum extent, while 83% of years with a long duration of ACT have a cold tongue with a greater maximum extent. Finally, 78% of early ACT onset years are associated with the coldest SST tongue in the eastern equatorial Atlantic Ocean. A comparison of the last 20 years (1999–2019) with the previous 20 years (1979–1998) shows a cooling trend in SST, with ACT occurring and ending earlier in recent years than in the past. However, as the changes in the end date are greater than those in the onset date, the duration of the ACT has been 5–12 days shorter in the last 20 years than in the previous 20 years. Knowledge of these ACT characteristics and their interrelations and drivers is crucial for understanding the West African Monsoon System and for improving climate models and seasonal forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Atlantic cold tongue, which typically peaks in boreal summer, exerts a pronounced regional and global impact on the climate and socio-economy. Projected future changes in the Atlantic cold tongue are full of uncertainty, mainly arising from a model bias in simulating its mean state, with less biased models projecting a stronger weakening in amplitude. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we find that model bias exerts its influence through modulating atmospheric thermal damping and upwelling of subsurface anomalous warming induced by the weakened Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). In less biased models, the Atlantic cold tongue, compared to the western equatorial Atlantic, features a cooler mean climate sea surface temperature (SST), and is subjected to smaller thermal damping induced by mean climate evaporation and consequently, faster SST warming. Moreover, equatorial subsurface warming associated with a reduced AMOC is advected to the surface via mean climate upwelling, enhancing faster SST warming in the east, a feedback stronger in less biased models that produce greater climatological upwelling. The above asymmetric SST warming would be amplified by the Bjerknes feedback, leading to a weakened Atlantic cold tongue. These findings may help to predict future changes in the Atlantic cold tongue and its influences.

The tropical Atlantic Ocean receives an important freshwater supply from river runoff and from precipitation in the intertropical convergence zone. It results in a strong salinity stratification that may influence vertical mixing, and thus sea surface temperature (SST) and air–sea fluxes. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of salinity stratification on the tropical Atlantic surface variables. This is achieved through comparison among regional 1/4 ∘ coupled ocean–atmosphere simulations for which the contribution of salinity stratification in the vertical mixing scheme is included or discarded. The analysis reveals that the strong salinity stratification in the northwestern tropical Atlantic induces a significant increase of SST (0.2 ∘ C–0.5 ∘ C) and rainfall (+ 19%) in summer, hereby intensifying the ocean–atmosphere water cycle, despite a negative atmospheric feedback. Indeed, the atmosphere dampens the oceanic response through an increase in latent heat loss and a reduction of shortwave radiation reaching the ocean surface. In winter, the impacts of salinity stratification are much weaker, most probably because of a deeper mixed layer at this time. In the equatorial region, we found that salinity stratification induces a year-round shoaling of the thermocline, reinforcing the cold tongue cool anomaly in summer. The concept of barrier layer has not been identified as relevant to explain the SST response to salinity stratification in our region of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the ability of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM4) to reproduce the observed rainfall and wind over West and central Africa (WCA) during two contrasting years of the Atlantic cold tongue (ACT): the very cold in 1992 and very warm in 2007 depicted by the Caniaux et al.’s index. The convective schemes of Kuo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology‐Emanuel (Ema) and Grell with closure assumptions of Arakawa–Schubert (GAS) and Fritch–Chappel (GFC) were compared and the best scheme was tested to study the sensitivity of WCA climate to ACT in August of each chosen year—the month which follows that of the peak of ACT. Comparisons of simulations for 1992 and 2007 reveal that some areas are sensitive to extreme ACT events. The regional distribution of observed precipitation (wind) in August 2007 was heavier (lower intensity) than that for the 1992, particularly in West than central Africa region. From GPCP data, it is observed that the range of Cameroon highlands and the Bauchi Plateau of Nigeria are not significantly affected by the ACT. It is shown that rainfall of some subregions is very sensitive to ACT. The GFC scheme is capable of reproducing the amount and distribution of the precipitation for the 2 years in the ACT area, the west and east Guinean coasts, and failed to reproduce the rainfall in west and central Soudano–Sahel regions and East Africa. However, the Kuo scheme reproduces well in these three zones. Contrarily to rainfall, the Ema scheme better reproduces, but overestimating, the wind distribution in the Sahara region. GFC better simulates the wind speed sensitivity to ACT far from the coast in Soudano–Sahel and Nigeria–Cameroon zones. The GAS and Kuo are not well correlated with ERA‐Interim in WCA. Most of the schemes adequately mimic the African easterly jet structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interannual variability of the Atlantic cold tongue (ACT) is studied by means of a mixed-layer heat budget analysis. A method to classify extreme cold and warm ACT events is proposed and applied to ten various analysis and reanalysis products. This classification allows 5 cold and 5 warm ACT events to be selected over the period 1982-2007. Cold (warm) ACT events are defined by the presence of negative (positive) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies at the center of the equatorial Atlantic in late boreal spring, preceded by negative (positive) zonal wind stress anomalies in the western equatorial Atlantic. An ocean general circulation model capable of reconstructing the interannual variability of the ACT correctly is used to demonstrate that cold ACT events develop rapidly from May to June mainly due to intense cooling by vertical mixing and horizontal advection. The simulated cooling at the center of the basin is the result of the combined effects of non-local and local processes. The non-local process is an upwelling associated with an eastward-propagating Kelvin wave, which makes the mixed-layer more shallow and preconditions the upper layers to be cooled by an intense heat loss at the base of the mixed-layer, which is amplified by a stronger local injection of energy from the atmosphere. The early cooling by vertical mixing in March is also shown to be a good predictor of June cooling. In July, horizontal advection starts to warm the mixed-layer abnormally and damps SST anomalies. The advection anomalies, which result from changes in the horizontal temperature gradient, are associated in some cases with the propagation of Rossby waves along the equator. During warm ACT events, processes are reversed, generating positive SST anomalies: a downwelling Kelvin wave triggers stratification anomalies and mixed-layer depth anomalies, amplified by a weaker injection of energy from the atmosphere in May-June. In July, warm ACT events are abnormally cooled due to negative horizontal advection anomalies resulting from processes similar to those that occur during cold ACT events. This additional cooling process extends the period of cooling of the ACT, reducing SST anomalies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the coupled models contain a strong warm bias in sea surface temperature (SST) over the Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) region (10° S–3° N, 20° W–10° E) during June–August (JJA) and September–November (SON). In this study, the origins of the ACT SST bias and their relative contributions to the bias are explored by conducting a set of sensitivity experiments, which are based on an ocean-ice model, and by ignoring the nonlinear effects of each origin. The origins for the warm bias over the ACT in the coupled climate model during JJA are estimated as follows: westerly wind bias along the equator (5° S–5° N) during March–May (MAM; contributes approximately 32.6% of the warm bias), northerly bias over the southern tropical Atlantic (25° S–3° N, 40° W–20° E) during MAM and JJA (21.4%), bias in the surface specific humidity and surface air temperature (11.9%), and downward shortwave radiation bias (6.5%). The origins of the ACT bias during SON are as follows: northerly bias over the southern tropical Atlantic during SON (31.2%), bias in the surface specific humidity and surface air temperature (27.9%), downward shortwave radiation bias (17.4%), and zonal wind bias (13.4%). Note that these contribution ratios of these origins may be model-dependent. In addition, the local and non-local effects of the zonal wind bias are explored explicitly, while those of all the other biases are examined implicitly. Therefore, a better-performing atmospheric component is crucial when simulating zonal winds during MAM along the equator (5° S–5° N) and meridional winds during MAM, JJA, and SON over the southern tropical Atlantic, which will alleviate the warm bias over the ACT region in the coupled climate model.

The existence, seasonality, and variability of a Congo Basin Walker circulation are investigated in reanalyses, and connections with rainfall are explored. A zonal overturning circulation along the equator connects rising motion in the Congo Basin and sinking in the eastern Atlantic during June through October. This timing is out of phase with precipitation over equatorial Africa, which greatest during spring and fall, and does not correlate with the seasonality of land temperatures. Rather, the zonally-overturning circulation only occurs when the Atlantic cold tongue has formed. Although the cold tongue formation is essential for setting up the Congo Basin Walker circulation, variations in equatorial eastern Atlantic sea surface temperatures are not associated with interannual variability in the strength of the circulation. When cold tongue SSTs are anomalously cool (warm), evaporation from the ocean surface is reduced (enhanced) and the westerly flow advects less (more) moisture into the base of the Congo Basin Walker circulation. This reduces (increases) the release of latent heat in the upbranch and weakens (strengthens) the Walker circulation. This process dominates the pure dry dynamical response to enhanced land/sea temperature differences, which has an opposite sign. A positive correlation connects low-level vertical velocity in the Congo basin with low-level vertical velocity and precipitation over West Africa. A wave response to anomalous vertical velocity in the Congo Basin in several reanalyses suggests a teleconnection into West Africa such that an anomalously strong (weak) upbranch is associated with anomalously strong (weak) rainfall over the Guinean coast and southern Sahel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of multiple passive tracers in a dynamical ocean model is presented as a method to study water mass origins. The multiple passive tracer method is successfully applied to determine the origin regions of the Atlantic cold tongue (ACT), using 31 passive tracers. At the time of the ACT minimum in sea surface temperature, 38 ± 3% of the surface water in the central equatorial Atlantic is found to originate in the western side of the basin, with only 11 ± 2% originating in the east. Conversely, for the ACT surface cooling off the west coast of Africa, only 2 ± 1% is from the west of the Atlantic basin, with 71 ± 7% from the east. The region of the North Brazil undercurrent is found to be the most important origin region for the central Atlantic ACT region, for a 6-8 month lead time. Using the Met Office EN4 observational dataset of ocean temperatures, correlations are found between January temperatures in the North Brazil undercurrent region and both the ACT mean temperature and ACT spatial extent in July-August, significant at the 0.95 level. This suggests that the 6-month lead-time predictability of the ACT may be increased by improved knowledge of the North Brazil undercurrent temperature. Results from previous studies suggest that such increased predictability of the ACT could potentially help improve predictions of the West African monsoon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The Atlantic cold tongue ( ACT) develops during spring and early summer near the Equator in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Guinea. The hypothesis that the ACT accelerates the timing of West African monsoon ( WAM) onset is tested by comparing two regional climate model ( RM3) simulation ensembles. Observed sea surface temperatures ( SST) that include the ACT are used to force a control ensemble. An idealized, warm SST perturbation is designed to represent lower boundary forcing without the ACT for the experiment ensemble. Summer simulations forced by observed SST and reanalysis boundary conditions for each of five consecutive years are compared to five parallel runs forced by SST with the warm perturbation. The article summarizes the sequence of events leading to the onset of the WAM in the Sahel region. The representation of WAM onset in RM3 simulations is examined and compared to Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission ( TRMM), Global Precipitation Climatology Project ( GPCP) and reanalysis data. The study evaluates the sensitivity of WAM onset indicators to the presence of the ACT by analysing the differences between the two simulation ensembles. Results show that the timing of major rainfall events and therefore the WAM onset in the Sahel are not sensitive to the presence of the ACT. However, the warm SST perturbation does increase downstream rainfall rates over West Africa as a consequence of enhanced specific humidity and enhanced northward moisture flux in the lower troposphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface-wind response to sea-surface temperature (SST) and SST meridional gradient is investigated in the Gulf of Guinea by using daily observations and re-analyses in the 2000-2009 decade, with a focus on boreal spring and summer months (May to August), where quasi-biweekly fluctuations in the position of the northern front of the equatorial cold tongue induce quasi-biweekly equatorial SST anomalies. Following a large-scale wind acceleration (deceleration), an equatorial SST cold (warm) anomaly is created within a few days. In order to explain the local atmospheric response to this SST anomaly, the two following mechanisms are invoked: first, a colder (warmer) ocean decreases (increases) the vertical stability in the marine atmospheric boundary layer, which favours a weaker (stronger) surface wind; and second, a negative (positive) anomaly of SST meridional gradient induces a positive (negative) anomaly of the sea-level-pressure meridional gradient, which decelerates (accelerates) the surface wind. The first mechanism has an immediate effect in the equatorial belt between 1°S and 1°N (and to a lesser extent between 3°S and 1°S), whereas the second takes 1 or 2 days to adjust and damps anomalous southeasterlies up to 800 hPa in the low troposphere between 7°S and 1°N, through reversed anomalies of meridional SST and pressure gradient. This negative feedback leads to weaker (stronger) winds in the southeastern tropical Atlantic, which forces the opposite phase of the oscillation within about 1 week. Around the Equator, where the amplitude of the oscillation is found to be maximal, both mechanisms combine to maximize the wind response to the front fluctuations. Between the Equator and the coast, a low-level secondary atmospheric circulation takes control of the surface-wind acceleration or deceleration around 3°N, which reduces the influence of the SST-front fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models are known to have difficulties simulating the cold tongue in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Here a regional climate model coupled to an intermediate-level mixed layer ocean model with Ekman dynamics is developed and used to better understand the seasonal evolution of the equatorial Atlantic cold tongue and upwelling off western Africa. Parameterization improvements are made to an earlier version of the ocean model to account for the variations in temperature and shearing stress at the base of the mixed layer. 90-km resolution sensitivity tests demonstrate that the development of the equatorial Atlantic cold tongue in the boreal spring/summer is captured only if seasonal variations in the temperature at the base of the ocean mixed layer are included. The development of cold temperatures off the northwest African coast in the late boreal winter/spring is found to be primarily associated with the net radiation balance as shortwave warming of the mixed layer is relatively low while latent cooling is relatively high yielding a net cooling of mixed layer temperatures, consistent with other studies. The westward extension of the Atlantic cold tongue is primarily due to the horizontal advection of cool water from the South Atlantic African coast. This coastal cooling is associated with vertical diffusion and vertical entrainment, while the vertical entrainment has a secondary and more localized role over the equatorial Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

one-dimensional model is used to analyze, at the local scale, the response of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean under different meteorological conditions. The study was performed at the location of three moored buoys of the Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic located at 10° W, 0° N; 10° W, 6° S; and 10° W, 10° S. During the EGEE-3 (Etude de la circulation océanique et de sa variabilité dans le Golfe de Guinee) campaign of May-June 2006, each buoy was visited for maintenance during 2 days. On board the ship, high-resolution atmospheric parameters were collected, as were profiles of temperature, salinity, and current. These data are used here to initialize, force, and validate a one-dimensional model in order to study the diurnal oceanic mixed-layer variability. It is shown that the diurnal variability of the sea surface temperatures is mainly driven by the solar heat flux. The diurnal response of the near-surface temperatures to daytime heating and nighttime cooling has an amplitude of a few tenths of degree. The computed diurnal heat budget experiences a net warming tendency of 31 and 27 W m at 0° N and 10° S, respectively, and a cooling tendency of 122 W m at 6° S. Both observed and simulated mixed-layer depths experience a jump between the nighttime convection phase and the well-stabilized diurnal water column. Its amplitude changes dramatically depending on the meteorological conditions occurring at the stations and reaches its maximum amplitude (~50 m) at 10° S. At 6° and 10° S, the presence of barrier layers is observed, a feature that is clearer at 10° S. Simulated turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rates, compared to independent microstructure measurements, show that the model tracks their diurnal evolution reasonably well. It is also shown that the shear and buoyancy productions and the vertical diffusion of TKE all contribute to the supply of TKE, but the buoyancy production is the main source of TKE during the period of the simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the coupled models contain a strong warm bias in sea surface temperature (SST) over the Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) region (10° S–3° N, 20° W–10° E) during June–August (JJA) and September–November (SON). In this study, the origins of the ACT SST bias and their relative contributions to the bias are explored by conducting a set of sensitivity experiments, which are based on an ocean-ice model, and by ignoring the nonlinear effects of each origin. The origins for the warm bias over the ACT in the coupled climate model during JJA are estimated as follows: westerly wind bias along the equator (5° S–5° N) during March–May (MAM; contributes approximately 32.6% of the warm bias), northerly bias over the southern tropical Atlantic (25° S–3° N, 40° W–20° E) during MAM and JJA (21.4%), bias in the surface specific humidity and surface air temperature (11.9%), and downward shortwave radiation bias (6.5%). The origins of the ACT bias during SON are as follows: northerly bias over the southern tropical Atlantic during SON (31.2%), bias in the surface specific humidity and surface air temperature (27.9%), downward shortwave radiation bias (17.4%), and zonal wind bias (13.4%). Note that these contribution ratios of these origins may be model-dependent. In addition, the local and non-local effects of the zonal wind bias are explored explicitly, while those of all the other biases are examined implicitly. Therefore, a better-performing atmospheric component is crucial when simulating zonal winds during MAM along the equator (5° S–5° N) and meridional winds during MAM, JJA, and SON over the southern tropical Atlantic, which will alleviate the warm bias over the ACT region in the coupled climate model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]