Jones, S.C., Parker, D.J.

Grams, Christian

The Saharan heat low is a shallow low pressure system over the region of strong insolation on the North African continent. It has a significant impact on the atmosphere of North and West Africa due to its characteristic diurnal and seasonal cycle. The COSMO model of the german weather service DWD is used to analyse the interactions between atmosphere, land surface and ocean at the south-western edge of the Saharan heat low. The GERBILS field campaign took place in West Africa in June 2007. Therefor we ran COSMO as an operational forecast system. In a first step these forecasts are validated against airborne and dropsonde measurements. By doing this a complex sea-breeze system is discovered; the Atlantic Inflow. The Atlantic Inflow becomes established as a stationary coastal front every day during GERBILS. This front starts moving inland in the early evening and penetrates up to the Tagant mountains, located 400 km inland, at nighttime. The Atlantic Inflow is highlighted in the second part of this study. Finally the heat and moisture budgets within a heat low, monsoon and Atlantic Inflow box are analysed using a slightly modified COSMO version.

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