Data · dataset · 2026
A characterization of the variation in relative humidity across West Africa during the dry season
Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research
The variation of relative humidity across West Africa during the dry season is evaluated using the Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) dataset and the method of self-organizing maps.
Description
Interest in the dry season of West Africa is related to the connection between near-surface atmospheric moisture and the occurrence of meningitis across West Africa, most notably in the region known as the meningitis belt.
The patterns in relative humidity are analyzed in terms of frequency of each pattern as well as the sequencing from one pattern to the next. The variations in relative humidity are characterized subannually for individual years from 1979 to 2009 as well as decadally over the entire 30-yr duration of dry seasons in West Africa. The progression from relatively moist patterns to relatively dry patterns and back to the moist patterns over the course of the dry season corresponds to the northward and then southward migration of the intertropical convergence zone.
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The results indicate distinctly different frequency and sequencing of relative humidity patterns from year to year. The year-to-year changes in relative humidity patterns are gradual. There is some indication of a larger, possibly decadal, pattern to the year-to-year changes in the variation of relative humidity over the course of the dry season.
The results are reflective of the reanalysis data including potentially unusual and erroneously dry conditions in central Africa after the mid-1990s.
Links
Get the data
- Publisher page n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7ws8v1z ↗
documentation · download · from data ucar edu
Where it is published
- data.ucar.edu /dataset/a-characterization-of-the-variation-in-relative-humidi… ↗
National Center for Atmospheric Research dataset page
landing page · from data ucar edu
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.ucar.edu/api/3/action/package_show?id=97b9b564-7163-4d51-bf90-f6f8c48f5… ↗
metadata API · from data ucar edu
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science
- Inferred from text
- Sequencing 75%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Center for Atmospheric Research | 97b9b564-7163-4d51-bf90-f6f8c48f59af | 8 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].local:modality:sequencing | enrichment · data ucar edu | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (75%) |
| created_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /notes |
| publication_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 |