The European Union (EU) funds the European-African consortium „DACCIWA - Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa“ since December 2013. Goal of the interdisciplinary project is to investigate the influence of the rapid increase of air pollution associated with explosive population growth, urbanisation und economic growth on respiratory diseases, agriculture, and cloud and precipitation formation during the West African summer monsoon. So far, the influence of manmade pollution on weather and climate is unknown due to a lack of observations and process understanding. DACCIWA aims to close this gap by gathering invaluable data during a large field and aircraft campaign in summer 2016, which will help to improve our understanding in aerosol-chemistry-cloud-precipitation formation and its representation in weather-chemistry models. At the same time, field data will help to improve satellite retrievals, such that long-term monitoring of aerosols, clouds and precipitation in the region will be significantly improved.
Population, transportation (the photo shows exhaust from a truck in Benin) and industrial growth without environmental regulations have led to a rapid increase of air pollution along the coast of West Africa. The influence of anthropogenic aerosols on cloud formation, precipitation und the entire West African monsoon system are unknown. This is the most important goal of DACCIWA.
|Show contribution of WG Knippertz|
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|Show contribution of WG Vogel|