Articles | Volume 17, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1777-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1777-2021
Research article
 | 
27 Aug 2021
Research article |  | 27 Aug 2021

Mid-Pliocene West African Monsoon rainfall as simulated in the PlioMIP2 ensemble

Ellen Berntell, Qiong Zhang, Qiang Li, Alan M. Haywood, Julia C. Tindall, Stephen J. Hunter, Zhongshi Zhang, Xiangyu Li, Chuncheng Guo, Kerim H. Nisancioglu, Christian Stepanek, Gerrit Lohmann, Linda E. Sohl, Mark A. Chandler, Ning Tan, Camille Contoux, Gilles Ramstein, Michiel L. J. Baatsen, Anna S. von der Heydt, Deepak Chandan, William Richard Peltier, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Wing-Le Chan, Youichi Kamae, Charles J. R. Williams, Daniel J. Lunt, Ran Feng, Bette L. Otto-Bliesner, and Esther C. Brady

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Cited articles

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Berntell, E., Zhang, Q., Chafik, L., and Körnich, H.: Representation of Multidecadal Sahel Rainfall Variability in 20th Century Reanalyses, Sci. Rep., 8, 6–13, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29217-9, 2018. 
Biasutti, M., Held, I. M., Sobel, A. H., and Giannini, A.: SST forcings and Sahel rainfall variability in simulations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, J. Climate, 21, 3471–3486, https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JCLI1896.1, 2008. 
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The mid-Pliocene Warm Period (~ 3.2 Ma) is often considered an analogue for near-future climate projections, and model results from the PlioMIP2 ensemble show an increase of rainfall over West Africa and the Sahara region compared to pre-industrial conditions. Though previous studies of future projections show a west–east drying–wetting contrast over the Sahel, these results indicate a uniform rainfall increase over the Sahel in warm climates characterized by increased greenhouse gas forcing.