Climate of the Congo Basin: the state of our understanding, challenges and opportunities

Abstract

The Congo Basin stands out as a convective hotspot and plays a crucial role in the Earth’s climate system by modulating the atmospheric circulation and carbon emissions caused by biomass burning in its southern and northern bands. Climate variability in this region is a result of interactions among various features acting on different time-scales. This presentation provides an overview of our current understanding of such features that operate at regional (e.g., Walker-like cells) and global (e.g., ENSO) scales. The distinct spatial heterogeneity of the region with respect to interannual variability will be presented and compared with the spatial variability of annual and diurnal cycles. Differences in driving factors of these variabilities will be discussed. Some challenges, such as the lack of in-situ observations, that limit the climate analysis over the region will be addressed. Finally, several aspects of future research opportunities will be highlighted. This includes interactions between local atmospheric jets, waves, precipitation-producing systems, deforestation and biomass burning, as well as potential improvements in collecting ground-based meteorological data in the region.