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As little as 6,000 years ago, the vast Sahara Desert was covered in grassland that received plenty of rainfall, but shifts in the world's weather patterns abruptly transformed the vegetated region into some of the driest land on Earth. A Texas A&M university researcher is trying to uncover the clues responsible for this enormous climate transformation – and the findings could lead to better rainfall predictions worldwide.
Robert Korty, associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, along with colleague William Boos of Yale University, have had their work published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.
The two researchers have looked into precipitation patterns of the Holocene era and compared them with present-day movements of the intertropical convergence zone, a large region of intense tropical rainfall. Using computer models and other data, the researchers found links to rainfall patterns thousands of years ago.
"The framework we developed helps us understand why the heaviest tropical rain belts set up where they do," Korty explains.
"Tropical rain belts are tied to what happens elsewhere in the world through the Hadley circulation, but it won't predict changes elsewhere directly, as the chain of events is very complex. But it is a step toward that goal."
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday December 03 2016, @05:50AM
The two researchers have looked into precipitation patterns of the Holocene era
Rainfall for something that long ago has got to be guesswork?
Find a petrified forest, guess how much rain?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 03 2016, @10:39AM
Yeah - that's what I was thinking too. I really think that a lot of our so-called experts are goofy bastards who sit around trying to imagine stuff while getting paid. After a lifetime of applying for grants, new people think the old bastard is an expert, so they believe the silly shit he spouts.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 03 2016, @05:41PM
Rainfall for something that long ago has got to be guesswork?
Lakes and rivers are often around that long. Look at silt deposits in them. Something like the Nile River probably has silt deposits going back millions of years.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday December 03 2016, @08:04PM
One can also attend to the kinds of trees, and the thickness of their growth rings. It's not guesswork even if it's not perfect. (Silt deposits also have their non-weather based variations, but again it's largely weather. Etc.) And I'm sure there are other measures that I don't know about because I'm not a specialist in that area, but silt deposits and growth rings are known even by the intelligent layman.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.