Abstract
The multifractal structure of daily temperature and relative humidity is investigated in this study. Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) method has been applied on data observed from 1967 to 2012 at the six synoptic stations of Benin (Cotonou, Bohicon, Parakou, Save, Natitingou and Kandi). We estimate the generalized Hurst exponent, the Renyi exponent, and the singularity spectrum from the data to quantify the multi-fractal behaviors. The results show that multi-fractality exists in both daily humidity and temperature record at Benin synoptic stations. It shows multi-fractality with the curves of h (q), τ (q) and D (q), depending on the values of q. The comparison of the multifractal properties shows that, at all the synoptic stations, the multifractal strength of the temperature is significantly different from the feature the humidity.For the temperature, among the six study sites, the multifractal strength at Natitingou is largest (∆α = 0.6917). This means that Natitingou is the city in which the multifractal property is strongly observed for temperature. At Parakou the multifractal strength is smallest (∆α = 0.5252), meaning that Parakou is the city in which the multifractal property is weakly observed. At all synoptic stations the multifractal strength are superior to 0.5 (Δα> 0.5) indicating the degree of multifractal in temperature time series.For the relative humidity, multifractal strength is smallest Kandi (∆α = 0.3031). This means that Kandi is the city in which the multifractal property is weakly observed. Furthermore, the multifractal strength of Parakou is largest (∆α = 0.7691) meaning that for the relative humidity, Parakou is the city in which the multifractal property is strongly observed. The geographic distribution of the multifractal strength reflects the role of climate dynamic processes on the multi-fractal behavior of humidity and the distinctiveness of physical processes in Benin.
Highlights
According to several studies, linear statistical methods are insufficient for a complete analysis of meteorological parameters time series
Boko et al (1988), Benin is characterized from the South to the North by two main climatic zones in which synoptic stations are located: Cotonou, Bohicon, and Save are located in the subequatorial region where March is the hottest month (~26°C), while August is the coldest month (~24°C)
It is observed that the linear relationship between the Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) fluctuation factor Fq(s) and the time scale s is obvious, which implies the existence of power-law relationship
Summary
Linear statistical methods are insufficient for a complete analysis of meteorological parameters time series. Meteorological parameters are characterized by a high degree of nonlinearity, non-stationarity and complexity (He, 2015; Agbazo et al, 2019a; Philippopoulos et al, 2019; Kalamaras et al, 2017, 2019; Jiang et al, 2016; Burgueño et al, 2014 and Dong et al, 2016). In this context, multifractal methods are suitable to analyze processes that obey to nonlinearity characteristics. The authors found that MFDFA methods can help reveal some properties, which could not be detected by linear methods (Kantelhardt et al, 2002; Kalamaras et al, 2017, 2019; Philippopoulos et al, 2019; Jiang et al, 2016)
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