Total ozone as a stratospheric indicator of climate variability over West Africa

In this paper, a study of the statistical analysis of total ozone concentration as released by satellite EPTOMS was used to show that annual coefficient of relative variability (ACRV) of ozone in West Africa over a period of 48 months increased gradually from 3.5% at latitudinal zone 0-5N to 6.1% at zone 2025N. A strong positive correlation of 0.99 was observed between the ACRV of ozone and average annual temperature, which increased from 25°C at the Atlantic coastal area of West Africa to 34°C at the hot arid north of the region. Also a negative correlation of -0.99 was observed between the ACRV of ozone and the average annual precipitation over the region which varied from an average of 3000 mm along the Atlantic coast to 127 mm in the hot arid north. Maximum ozone inter-annual variability of between 6 and 10% occurred between December and February, coinciding with the dry Harmattan season, while the minimum of between 2 and 4% occurred between June and August coinciding with the raining season.