Simulating the impact of varying vegetation on West African monsoon surface fluxes using a regional convection‐permitting model

Abstract This study assessed the sensitivity of the West African climate to varying vegetation fractions. The assessment of a such relationship is critical in understanding the interactions between land surface and atmosphere. Two sets of convection‐permitting simulations from the UK Met Office Unified Model at 12 km horizontal resolution covering the monsoon period May–September (MJJAS) were used, one with fixed vegetation fraction (MF‐V) and the other with time‐varying vegetation fraction (MV‐V). Vegetation fractions are based on MODIS retrievals between May and September. We focused on three climatic zones over West Africa: Guinea Coast, Sudanian Sahel, and the Sahel while investigating heat fluxes, temperature, and evapotranspiration. Results reveal that latent heat fluxes are the most strongly affected by vegetation fraction over the Sahelian and Sudanian regions while sensible heat fluxes are more impacted over the Guinea Coast and Sudanian Sahel. Also, in MV‐V simulation there is an increase in evapotranspiration mainly over the Sahel and some specific areas in Guinea Coast from June to September. Moreover, it is noticed that high near‐surface temperature is associated with a weak vegetation fraction, especially during May and June. Finally, varying vegetation seems to improve the simulation of surface energy fluxes and in turn impact on climate parameters. This suggests that climate modelers should prioritize the use of varying vegetation options to improve the representation of the West African climate system.