Visiting the Gulf of Guinea --- Priceless – in more ways than one (from October 2013)

The Gulf of Guinea is a body of water that lies just to the south of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivore (ivory coast).   This is not just any body of water as it connects to the Atlantic Ocean.  In these times, folks are looking for oil in these warm waters and in fact they are finding it.  Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea have been the winners of the oil finds but off shore drilling is occurring today and will continue in the foreseeable future for the oil hungry countries of China, USA and India. 

Oil Rig in the Gulf of Guinea 

Ships transporting oil from the Gulf of Guinea

But with a strange twist, the Gulf of Guinea has an important role in climate, with it being the primary source of water vapor to all of West Africa during the Wet Season (April-November).  Since at least the mid 1970s researchers have focused on whether the temperatures in this body of water are warmer or colder than normal.    These are formally known as warm sea surface temperature anomalies (warm SSTAs) and cold sea surface temperature anomalies (cold SSTAs)).  They are important because they seem to determine if the land regions to the north in West Africa will be drier or wetter.   When Cold SSTAs are found, the region just south of the Saharan Desert known as the Sahel tend to be wetter, while then there are warm SSTAs the Sahel tends to be drier.  Much of what we know about the linkage between the Gulf of Guinea and wetter/drier patterns of rainfall comes from work done by the late Dr. Peter Lamb who passed away last month.  He inspired many young scientists to study and improve our insights and understanding of forcing that produced the drying patterns during the late 20^th century in West Africa.  In fact, U of Illinois was the high on my list of graduate programs because of Dr. Lamb.  But the corn field were too much for me to handle after visiting the U of Illinois.    

The Late Dr. Peter Lamb

The value of knowing if the Gulf of Guinea temperatures will be warmer or colder than normal has value in potentially preparing farmers, water resource managers and government officials for what may be expected for rainfall during the wet season.  The work in the last 10 -15 years show that other oceans are also important in determining how much rain will fall in West Africa.  So one of the most important things to do, while I visited Abidjan last October (when I started this blog but never finished) was to see the Gulf of Guinea with my own eyes.  I have read so many scientific papers about the Gulf of Guinea that it is like an old friend that I have only know from maps but never in person.  

When I reached the Gulf of Guinea, put my hands in the warm water and looked out towards the horizon, I felt the deep connection to something much bigger than me.   This body of water has touched the lives of many people, controlled the economies of countries in West Africa, caused pastoralist to move onward to new areas and accelerated urbanization because of drought in West African coastal cities during the 20^th century. 

The World's addiction to fossil fuel and the accumulation of greenhouse gases will warm and influence the sea surface temperature anomalies in the Gulf of Guinea and hence the patterns of summertime rainfall in West Africa.   The warming of ocean temperatures of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans will also influence rainfall in West Africa during this century.   That in turn will determine the quality of life for approximately a half billion people north of this body of water in mid to late 21^st century.   

But my experience of coming face to face with an old but awesome friend that I have studies for many years was priceless.

Sunset over the Gulf of Guinea