FAAM: Fennec Programme in the Central Sahara
Fennec is a large-scale, international, multi-institutional, multi-platform, observational, modelling and satellite programme designed to tackle one of the world's key climate regions. It is an ambitious atmospheric measurement project that took place in, around and above the Sahel region of Africa in 2011 and 2012. This recently published video shows some of the instruments, scientists and locations that were involved.
Description of the video
The central Sahara has one of the most extreme climates on Earth. During the summer months, a large low pressure system caused by intense solar heating develops over a huge, largely uninhabited expanse of northern Mali, southern Algeria and eastern Mauritania.
The atmospheric aerosol loading and thermodynamics over this region are unique, and have major impacts on the climate of the whole North African sector, Europe and the Atlantic. Fennec is a large-scale, international, multi-institutional, multi-platform, observational, modelling and satellite programme designed to tackle one of the world's key climate regions.
This short film covers the story of the observations made of the Central Sahara in the summers of 2011 and 2012. It tells the story of a dedicated set of specialists both on the ground and in the air who managed to deliver the most comprehensive field campaign ever mounted in this hugely-empty, fiercely hot and inhospitable region.
The 17 minute film has been submitted to the Geocinema session at the EGU 2013.