The Use of NCEP Reanalysis in Improving our Understanding of African Climate Variability

The base state and the variability of the African climate on intraseasonal, interannual and interdecadal time scales as seen from the NCEP reanalysis are presented. The focus is on the West African monsoon, the Greater Horn of Africa, and the southern Africa climate systems. Some aspects of our current level of understanding of these climate systems are reviewed and compared with earlier work from the pre-reanalysis era. Limitations in the NCEP reanalysis in understanding the underlying physics associated with the African climate variability are also covered.