The West African Sahel: A Review of Recent Studies on the Rainfall Regime and Its Interannual Variability
Figure 7
Schematic of the rainbelt over West Africa (from [20]). Top diagram is a vertical cross-section of mean vertical motion (10−2 hPas−1) in August. The main region of ascent lies between the axes of the African easterly jet (AEJ) and the tropical easterly jet (TEJ). A shallow region of ascent corresponds to the surface position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the center of the Saharan heat low. The bottom diagram gives mean August rainfall (mm mo−1, averaged for 10° W to 10° E) as a function of latitude, with the location of the Sahel indicated on the latitudinal axis.
