African monsoons, Part 2: Synoptic-scale wave disturbances in the intertropical convergence zone over north Africa

Abstract

In this part, the paper discusses several aspects of the origin, structure, development and movement of wave disturbances over the North African tropical zone during the northern summer. Analyzing the cases often actual wave disturbances which later in their life cycles developed into hurricanes over the Atlantic, it finds that though the horizontal and vertical shear of the mean zonal wind associated with the mid-tropospheric easterly jet over Africa satisfies the condition of dynamical instability under certain restrictive boundary conditions, it is the influence of a large-amplitude baroclinic wave in mid-latitude westerlies upon a stationary wave in the mountainous region of the east-central north Africa that appears to trigger the birth of a wave disturbance in the intertropical convergence zone over the Nile valley of Sudan between the Marra and the Ethiopian mountains. Physical processes likely to be important in the formation, development and movement of the disturbances are pointed out.