First AMMA International Conference, Dakar 2005

AMMA's First International Conference was held in Dakar, Senegal, November 28 - December 4 2005.
It included a workshop on impacts the last two days.

Group picture of the Dakar conference participants
Proceedings
Accepted abtracts
Programme with downloadable presentations
Acknowledgements

Conference outline

AMMA first international conference aimed to bring together researchers from around the world working on the WAM and its impacts, to review ongoing research activities and to discuss future contributions and directions within the AMMA research programme. It also provided the first real opportunity for establishing and coordinating collaborations at the international level, and in particular with African scientists. 

Substantial efforts were made to ensure good attendance at the conference, particularly from Africans in the region. Expectations were significantly exceeded with more than 300 abstracts received and 255 participants from 23 countries, including at least 70 Africans. This enthusiasm for AMMA is a strong endorsement for what AMMA is working to achieve.

The conference took place within the enhanced observing period (EOP) and just ahead of the AMMA special observing period (SOP) in 2006. The conference was an ideal occasion to review and discuss the plans for the observing campaign as well as the opportunities for related research activities.

AMMA activities are coordinated through 5 international working groups. These 5 research areas constituted the main themes of the conference. More on the conference themes

Download conference flyer in English or in French

Highlights of parallel working sessions

WG1: West African Monsoon and Global Climate

(i) WG1 discussion
Participation in the sessions that relate to WG1 was very strong with 94 contributions from Africa, Europe and the US. Key topics discussed in the parallel session included: Synoptic and Mesoscale weather systems, Climate Change uncertainties and Regional Climate Modeling.

Key Activities that were agreed in the short term included:
o Work with modeling community to agree international modeling strategy (see below).
o Promote special session at AMS January 2007 on West African Monsoon
o Establish international e-mail list for WG1, make contributions to AMMA International Newsletter, and develop international webpages for WG1.
o A proposal for the core-group was made that included expertise from modeling, aerosol, chemistry and ocean subject areas as well as links to the two impacts WGs (WG4 and WG5). It will also include appropriate representation from national and pan-national projects to aid the coordination and avoid duplication of efforts (true for all WGs).

(ii) Aerosol-Chemistry
Key topics discussed in the parallel session included: Dust aerosols, Anthropogenic aerosols biomass burning and aerosols mixing and Field observations.

Key Activities that were agreed in the short term included:
o Develop modeling strategy (based on multi-scales)
o Establish linkages with AMMA Satellite database
o Run special session at IGAC conference in September, 2006 (Cape Town)
o Funding of African scientists: continue discussions with IGAC & interact with ILEAPS & ST4 regarding the various training opportunities.
o Use and Develop international webpages; make contributions to AMMA International Newsletter

(iii) Ocean
Key topics discussed in the parallel session included: Field observations, SSTs and the West African Monsoon (large-scale), Air sea fluxes, Ocean circulation in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic, Air-sea coupling, African programs and databases and satellite data.
The Dakar conference was the 1st opportunity to gather African oceanographers working in the region. A meeting took place for the 1st time ever between African oceanographers from Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

Key Activities that were agreed in the short term included:
o Produce a document that summarises the following: African programs and their potential link with AMMA; their data needs, national datasets (description and availability); similar information from France. The ultimate goal of this is to produce a regional ocean dataset.
o Produce a scientific document that describes the linkages between the climate studies in AMMA and the coastal and impact studies of interest in the region (e.g. coastal erosion, fisheries).
o Work towards establishing a free-access web-based database to provide ocean and air-sea interaction products.
o Communicate through an established e-mail list.

(iv) Evaluation and improvement of GCMs
This parallel session was established in recognition of the substantial interest that exists in the international community to contribute to this activity. In addition to the existing activities in Europe, other groups wish to contribute and collaborate (e.g. proposal from Y. Xue and B. Lau under the auspices of CEOP). There was general agreement to coordinate these activities under two main headings:

o Activity 1: Evaluation of Models (MIP)
o Activity 2: Improvement of Processes and Feedbacks

There is a recommendation that these activities should be linked to the relevant interested international bodies: COPES, CLIVAR (including VACS), GEWEX (including CEOP and GMPP), THORPEX and IGBP.
An international coordinating group was proposed to develop and continue these discussions

WG2: Water Cycle
WG3: Land-Surface-Atmosphere Feedbacks
WG4: Prediction of Climate Impacts
WG5: High Impact Weather Prediction and Predictability

Funding of the conference and logistical help

The International Organisation team of the conference would like to thank especially the following institutions who enabled the conference by funding participants and / or logistical help during the conference:

The AMMA-EU project (FP6 contract 004089-2) funded the participation of 15 young scientists. The fellowships were awarded to the candidates based on their excellence and with the most promising projects within AMMA. The awarded students and young post docs were involved in AMMA within one of the following institutions partners of the AMMA-EU project: CNRS (France), IRD (France and Benin), UPS (France), IGUC (Copenhaguen), AGRHYMET (Niger), Météo France (France), CNR (Italy), University of Liverpool (UK), EIER (Burkina Faso), UCM (Spain), University of Leeds (UK).

The French institutions (CNRS/INSU, CNES, IRD, Météo-France, IFREMER) participating into the funding of AMMA France allowed the participation of a large number of African colleagues in addition to the funding received from IGAC, DoE (ARM), EU (AMMA-EU), SCAC of the French Embassies Niamey, Senegal, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso...), UNESCO/CO