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This study investigates the changes in West African monsoon features during warm years using the Regional Climate Model version 4.5 (RegCM4.5). The analysis uses 30 years of datasets of rainfall, surface temperature and wind parameters (from 1980 to 2009). We performed a simulation at a spatial resolution of 50 km with the RegCM4.5 model driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis. The rainfall amount is weaker over the Sahel (western and central) and the Guinea region for the warmest years compared to the coldest ones. The analysis of heat fluxes show that the sensible (latent) heat flux is stronger (weaker) during the warmest (coldest) years. When considering the rainfall events, there is a decrease of the number of rainy days over the Guinea Coast (in the South of Cote d&rsquo, Ivoire, of Ghana and of Benin) and the western and eastern Sahel during warm years. The maximum length of consecutive wet days decreases over the western and eastern Sahel, while the consecutive dry days increase mainly over the Sahel band during the warm years. The percentage of very warm days and warm nights increase mainly over the Sahel domain and the Guinea region. The model also simulates an increase of the warm spell duration index in the whole Sahel domain and over the Guinea Coast in warm years. The analysis of the wind dynamic exhibits during warm years a weakening of the monsoon flow in the lower levels, a strengthening in the magnitude of the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) in the mid-troposphere and a slight increase of the Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ) in the upper levels of the atmosphere during warm years.

Cet atlas présente le réchauffement climatique récent, de 1971 à 2010, dans les terres émergées continentales et océaniques découpées en 39 régions dont, pour certaines d'entre elles, les limites sont proches des limites des régions climatiques du globe telles que définies et tracées par exemple par KÖPPEN et GEIGER. Les températures utilisées sont les moyennes annuelles empruntées à la base de données "Gistemp" de la NASA, complétées par calcul et par station. Dans chaque région, sont représentées graphiquement l'évolution des températures annuelles, selon l'environnement des stations, rural, urbain ou intermédiaire, ainsi que la valeur du réchauffement, par périodes pluri annuelles et décennales. En outre, les stations, classées en deux catégories en comparant leurs températures de 2009 et 2010, sont localisées sur des cartes à l'échelle de chaque continent. Quatre cartes régionales du réchauffement sont produites pour les périodes 1971-2010, 1981-2010, 1991-2010 et 2001­2010. Elles permettent de distinguer les régions en réchauffement et les régions en refroidissement, ces dernières concernant principalement les deux dernières décennies. This atlas presents the recent warming, from 1971 to 2010, in the continental and oceanic earth's land surface, divided into 39 regions which, for some of them, the limits are close to the earth's climatic regions defined and delineated by KÖPPEN and GEIGER. The temperatures used are annual averages taken from the "Gistemp" data base of the NASA, supplemented by calculation and by station. In each region, graphs and diagrams represent the evolution of annual temperatures as well as pluri-annual, decadal and multi decadal periods of warming, depending on the environment of stations: rural, urban or intermediate. In addition, the stations, divided into two categories by comparing their temperatures of 2009 and 2010, are located on each continent-scale maps. Four regional maps of warming are drawn up for the periods 1971-2010, 1981-2010, 1991-2010 and 2001-2010. The warming regions are distinguished from the cooling regions, mainly during the last two decades.