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African Collaborators Continue Data Analyses from Niamey

 
Published: 31 July 2009
During a recent gathering at the University of Niamey, SGP and African collaborators pause for a quick photo. From left to right: Dr. Zewdu Segele, SGP Site Scientist Postdoc; Professor Ibrah Sanda, Professor of Physics, University of Niamey; Dr. Pete Lamb, SGP Site Scientist; Professor Ben Mohamed, project lead from the University of Niamey; Hama Hamidou, a Niamey meteorologist, who will spend six months working on the project at the University of Oklahoma; and Issa Lele, a University of Oklahoma PhD student from Niamey.
During a recent gathering at the University of Niamey, SGP and African collaborators pause for a quick photo. From left to right: Dr. Zewdu Segele, SGP Site Scientist Postdoc; Professor Ibrah Sanda, Professor of Physics, University of Niamey; Dr. Pete Lamb, SGP Site Scientist; Professor Ben Mohamed, project lead from the University of Niamey; Hama Hamidou, a Niamey meteorologist who will spend six months working on the project at the University of Oklahoma; and Issa Lele, a University of Oklahoma PhD student from Niamey.

In 2006, the ARM Mobile Facility was deployed to Niamey, Africa, for the RADAGAST campaign as part of the ongoing African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) study. To further the data analyses from this deployment and identify additional areas for future study, researchers from the University of Niamey are now teaming with the site scientist team for the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. This collaboration follows the publication of eight scientific papers in JGR-Atmospheres between 2008 and 2009, a testament to the scientific leadership provided by the late Dr. Anthony Slingo, who spearheaded the campaign in Niamey and coordinated the ensuing series of papers.

Research by Professor Ben Mohamed and his colleagues at the University of Niamey has focused on analyzing the unique set of high-temporal resolution rawinsonde measurements—four soundings per day for an entire year—from the AMF deployment. Along with Dr. Slingo, who focused on thermodynamic and radiation measurements, they presented their initial findings at the Second AMMA International Conference in Karslrhue, Germany, and the Eighteenth ARM Science Team Meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2008. With Dr. Pete Lamb, SGP Site Scientist, they presented their latest research results at the Third AMMA International Conference in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa, in July, which drew 400 participants—180 from Africa.

Because of the importance placed on this research for Niger and the rest of the Soudano-Sahel zone in West Africa, the agreement with the SGP site scientist team will enable the following intensive collaboration activities to occur:

  • A three-month assignment by SGP Site Scientist Postdoctoral Appointee, Dr. Zewdu Tessema Segele, to the University of Niamey with Dr. Mohamed and his colleagues.
  • Identification of Hama Hamidou, a promising researcher from the University of Niamey, for a six-month assignment at the University of Oklahoma’s Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies to coordinate and complete the collaboration begun with Dr. Segele while at the University of Niamey.