@article{fdi:010075534,
  title = {{A} new 60-year 1940/1999 monthly-gridded rainfall data set for {A}frica},
  author = {{D}ieulin, {C}laudine and {M}ah{\'e}, {G}il and {P}aturel, {J}ean-{E}mmanuel and {E}jjiyar, {S}. and {T}ramblay, {Y}ves and {R}ouch{\'e}, {N}athalie and {E}l {M}ansouri, {B}.},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{T}he {A}frican continent has a very low density of rain gauge stations, and long time-series for recent years are often limited and poorly available. {I}n the context of global change, it is very important to be able to characterize the spatio-temporal variability of past rainfall, on the basis of datasets issued from observations, to correctly validate simulations. {T}he quality of the rainfall data is for instance of very high importance to improve the efficiency of the hydrological modeling, through calibration/validation experiments. {T}he {H}ydro{S}ciences {M}ontpellier {L}aboratory ({HSM}) has a long experience in collecting and managing hydro-climatological data. {T}hus, {HSM} had initiated a program to elaborate a reference dataset, in order to build monthly rainfall grids over the {A}frican continent, over a period of 60 years (1940/1999). {T}he large quantity of data collected (about 7000 measurement points were used in this project) allowed for interpolation using only observed data, with no statistical use of a reference period. {C}ompared to other databases that are used to build the grids of the {G}lobal {H}istorical {C}limatology {N}etwork ({GHCN}) or the {C}limatic {R}esearch {U}nit of {U}niversity of {E}ast {A}nglia, {UK} ({CRU}), the number of available observational stations was significantly much higher, including the end of the century when the number of measurement stations dropped dramatically, everywhere. {I}nverse distance weighed ({IDW}) was the chosen method to build the 720 monthly grids and a mean annual grid, from rain gauges. {T}he mean annual grid was compared to the {CRU} grid. {T}he grids were significantly different in many places, especially in {N}orth {A}frica, {S}ahel, the horn of {A}frica, and the {S}outh {W}estern coast of {A}frica, with {HSM}_{SIEREM} data (database {H}ydro{S}ciences {M}ontpellier_{S}ysteme d'{I}nformation {E}nvironnementales pour les {R}essources en {E}au et leur {M}odelisation) being closer to the observed rain gauge values. {T}he quality of the grids computed was checked, following two approachescross-validation of the two interpolation methods, ordinary kriging and inverse distance weighting, which gave a comparable reliability, with regards to the observed data, long time-series analysis, and analysis of long-term signals over the continent, compared to previous studies. {T}he statistical tests, computed on the observed and gridded data, detected a rupture in the rainfall regime around 1979/1980, on the scale of the whole continent; this was congruent with the results in the literature. {A}t the monthly time-scale, the most widely observed signal over the period of 1940/1999, was a significant decrease of the austral rainy season between {M}arch and {M}ay, which has not earlier been well-documented. {T}hus, this would lead to a further detailed climatological study from this {HSM}_{SIEREM} database.},
  keywords = {{A}frica ; rainfall ; monthly grids ; database ; inverse distance weighted ; {AFRIQUE}},
  booktitle = {{M}ultiscale impacts of anthropogenic and climate changes on tropical and mediterranean hydrology},
  journal = {{W}ater},
  volume = {11},
  numero = {2},
  pages = {art. 387 [17 p.]},
  ISSN = {2073-4441},
  year = {2019},
  DOI = {10.3390/w11020387},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010075534},
}