The Green Sahara Periods and their impacts on El Niño and South American hydroclimate

• Grant number: 23/00072-3
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: June 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Physical Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Ilana Elazari Klein Coaracy Wainer
• Grantee: Ilana Elazari Klein Coaracy Wainer
• Visiting researcher: Francesco Salvatore Rocco Pausata
• Visiting researcher institution: Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Canada
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this visit is to investigate in details the connections between hydroclimate in northern Africa and South America during the last Green Sahara period (GSP; 11,000 - 5,000 years ago). In particular, our previous collaborations have shown the large impacts that the strengthening of West African Monsoon (WAM) can have on the Amazon (drying) and south America in general (Gorenstein et al., 2022; Tiwari et al., under review). During my visit at the Oceanographic Institute, we plan to dive into the causes of such strong teleconnections. In particularly, we will use a high-horizontal-resolution (4 km) atmospheric climate model to understand how changes in ocean surface temperature caused by different incoming solar radiation relative to today as well as stronger WAM. (AU)