Stratospheric aerosols and their impact on Sahelian rainfall
Sunday, March 31, 2013 - 18:00
in Earth & Climate
(Phys.org) —The Sahelian drought of the 1970s-1990s was one of the largest humanitarian disasters of the last fifty years, causing up to 250,000 deaths and creating 10 million refugees. This drought has been attributed to natural variability, over-grazing and the impact of industrial emissions of sulphur dioxide. Each of these mechanisms can influence the Atlantic sea surface temperature gradient which is strongly coupled to Sahelian precipitation.