Exploring the potential of the cost-efficient TAHMO observation data for hydro-meteorological applications in sub-Saharan Africa

  • The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) is a promising initiative aiming to install 20,000 stations in sub-Saharan Africa counteracting the decreasing trend of available measuring stations. To achieve this goal, it is particularly important that the installed weather stations are cost-efficient, appropriate for African conditions, and reliably measure the most important variables for hydro-meteorological applications. Since there exist no performance studies of TAHMO stations while operating in Africa, it is necessary to investigate their performance under different climate conditions. This study provides a first analysis of the performance of 10 selected TAHMO stations across Burkina Faso (BF). More specifically, the analysis consists of missing value statistics, plausibility tests of temperature (minimum, maximum) and precipitation, spatial dependencies (correlograms) by comparison with daily observations from synoptical stations of the BF meteorological service asThe Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) is a promising initiative aiming to install 20,000 stations in sub-Saharan Africa counteracting the decreasing trend of available measuring stations. To achieve this goal, it is particularly important that the installed weather stations are cost-efficient, appropriate for African conditions, and reliably measure the most important variables for hydro-meteorological applications. Since there exist no performance studies of TAHMO stations while operating in Africa, it is necessary to investigate their performance under different climate conditions. This study provides a first analysis of the performance of 10 selected TAHMO stations across Burkina Faso (BF). More specifically, the analysis consists of missing value statistics, plausibility tests of temperature (minimum, maximum) and precipitation, spatial dependencies (correlograms) by comparison with daily observations from synoptical stations of the BF meteorological service as well as cross-comparison between the TAHMO stations. Based on the results of this study for BF for the period from May 2017 to December 2020, it is concluded that TAHMO potentially offers a reliable and cost-efficient solution for applications in hydro-meteorology. The usage of wind speed measurements cannot be recommended without reservation, at least not without bias correcting of the data. The limited measurement period of TAHMO still prevents its usability in climate (impact) research. It is also stressed that TAHMO cannot replace existing observation networks operated by the local meteorological services, but it can be a complement and has great potential for detailed spatial analyses. Since restricted to BF in this analysis, more evaluation studies of TAHMO are needed considering different environmental and climate conditions across SSA.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Julia Schunke, Patrick LauxORCiDGND, Jan BliefernichtORCiDGND, Moussa Waongo, Windmanagda SawadogoORCiDGND, Harald KunstmannORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:384-opus4-910616
Frontdoor URLhttps://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/91061
ISSN:2073-4441OPAC
Parent Title (English):Water
Publisher:MDPI
Type:Article
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2021/11/22
Publishing Institution:Universität Augsburg
Release Date:2021/12/09
Tag:cost-efficient weather stations; validation; geostatistical analysis; correlogram; Trans-African Hydro Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO); sub-Saharan Africa; Burkina Faso
Volume:13
Issue:22
First Page:3308
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/w13223308
Institutes:Fakultät für Angewandte Informatik
Fakultät für Angewandte Informatik / Institut für Geographie
Fakultät für Angewandte Informatik / Institut für Geographie / Lehrstuhl für Regionales Klima und Hydrologie
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 55 Geowissenschaften, Geologie / 550 Geowissenschaften
Licence (German):CC-BY 4.0: Creative Commons: Namensnennung (mit Print on Demand)