An Evaluation of African Atmospheric Aerosol, Precipitation, and PM2.5 in CMIP6

Oral Presentation

Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) models are highly diverse in their ability to capture spatial patterns of precipitation and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) over Africa, as well as the climatology for both. This research aims to determine the extent to which the model performance in replicating each variable is dependent on the accuracy of the other. There are known interactions between AOD and precipitation, but the sign and magnitude of the response of one to changes in the other are dependent on the background state of the region, making the relationship between the variables complex. The performances of CMIP6 models have been examined for each variable individually in other studies. However, in this research the relationship between the performances of the two variables over Africa is investigated, using reanalysis datasets and satellite observations for model evaluation, as well as evaluating PM2.5 concentrations in CMIP6 using in-situ air quality measurements. The research highlights the importance of accurate atmospheric aerosol patterns for accuracy in model precipitation.