Coherent pattern of African dust and Precipitation over tropical Atlantic

Aerosol and precipitation over Atlantic region are two dominant features in the tropical climate system. African dust has been studied for a long time, and some research have linked the African dust with the African dry air outbreaks (Zhang and Jeremy, 2003). Precipitation over tropical Atlantic is also observed and studied for years. With the movement of ITCZ, we already know the annual cycle pattern there. In my research, I try to find out the coherent pattern of African dust and precipitation over tropical Atlantic region. I use satellite data over 25 years to do SVD(Singular Value Decomposition). From the singular vector distribution output and time series, we can clearly find out the annual cycle pattern. What is more, I will use longer time record Barbados data to reconstruct the precipitation and dust field, so that I can remove the annual cycle signal to see inter-annual variability.