cc: Nick Brooks , "Thomas C Peterson" , Richard Thigpen , date: Tue May 3 13:13:04 2005 from: Phil Jones subject: Western Sahara to: "Hans Teunissen" Hans, I told Nick Brooks who works here at UEA that I would forward his email to someone. You'll need to read his email to see the idea and I'll elaborate on the potential problems. The major problem is that the 'country' isn't one in the strictest sense. It is a UN protectorate of sorts. There are all sorts of issues of stepping on toes - Morroco for a start. Apparently you can get to the 'country' through Mauritania as well as Algeria. Being a UN agency you may be able to find out what the problems might be. As there are very little or no data, there are no GCOS sites. There is probably nothing we can do, but maybe someone will have some bright idea. Cheers Phil From: Nick Brooks Subject: Re: Western Sahara Project enquiry Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 11:39:57 +0100 To: Phil Jones X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.619.2) Dear Phil Thanks for forwarding this to me; I'll get back to the person in question. I've been meaning to contact you about Western Sahara in any case. On my last trip there in March this year I was struck by how green it was. According to Stefan Kroepelin, who came with me, the vegetation where we were, between about 20 and 25 degrees N, was equivalent to that beginning at 16 degrees N in the eastern Sahara. The locals talk about rain and drought, and apparently every couple of years they get the tail end of the summer monsoon rains. The also get some winter rain, presumably associated with the Atlantic westerlies that water Morocco. All the climatological charts show Western Sahara as hyper arid, much like the central Sahara at the same latitudes. This is probably not surprising, given that there are no data for the region, except for one met station on the coast where coastal upwelling is associated with subsidence. So I suspect that our understanding of the rainfall and climate of this part of northern Africa needs to be revised. I know CRU are not in the business of setting up met stations, but thought perhaps you knew people in the Met Office who might be interested in this. I work in what is known locally as the "free zone", which is the part not occupied my Morocco (most of the country is). I have excellent relations with the Polisario, who run this part of Western Sahara from Algeria, and it would be no problem to set up some observing stations from the point of view of bureaucracy - all we need are the resources, some expertise, and equipment that can be left to its own devices for long periods. I don't know how much this would cost though. Feel free to forward this to the relevant people if you think it might be worth pursuing. I think this would be a worthwhile exercise in the name of better observational data from Africa, and this almost never-visited region might yield some interesting results regarding monsoon sensitivity and oscillation of the monsoon limit. All the best Nick Dr Nick Brooks Senior Research Associate, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Assistant Director, UEA Saharan Studies Programme School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ UK Tel: +44 1603 593904 Fax: +44 1603 593901 Email: nick.brooks@ueaa.ac.uk Tyndall website: [1]http://www.tyndall.ac.uk Saharan Studies Programme: [2]http://www.uea.ac.uk/sahara Personal website: [3]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/welcome.htm Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090 School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784 University of East Anglia Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk NR4 7TJ UK ----------------------------------------------------------------------------