African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses - UK (AMMA-UK).

Subsaharan Africa has experienced measurable climate change over recent decades, with severe effects on local water resources, agriculture and health. However, our predictive methods for this region are unreliable, due to a lack of observations and a poor understanding of the processes controlling the West African Monsoon (WAM). As part of the international AMMA programme the UK will undertake a substantial effort, involving 8 institutions and more than 30 scientists, to measure the physical and chemical processes which determine the local climate and its global impacts. AMMA-UK will install an array of ground-based stations, between the tropical forest of the Guinea coast and the Sahara desert, to monitor climate over a two-year period. Within the vegetation canopy, measurements will be made of the environmental quantities which determine disease propagation and these will be related to the larger-scale weather and climate as derived from satellite observations. In the summer of 2006, an intensive campaign of aircraft and balloon-borne measurements will be used to analyse the atmospheric state and composition. Using a synthesis of the full set of measurements, the interaction of patterns of soil moisture and vegetation with weather systems and atmospheric composition will be determined. A co-ordinated programme of modelling will describe the role of the WAM in the global climate, improve our understanding of droughts and contribute to improved forecasts.