TITLE:
Trends of Temperature and Signature of Solar Activity in Selected Stations in Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Christiana F. Olusegun, Akeem B. Rabiu, Jared O. H. Ndeda, Emmanuel C. Okogbue
KEYWORDS:
Trends; Temperature; Solar Activity; Periodicity
JOURNAL NAME:
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
10,
2014
ABSTRACT: This study investigates
the variability and periodicity of minimum temperature, maximum temperature and
sunspot number—a solar activity index in selected synoptic stations across Nigeria
from 1946 to 2010. Annual and semiannual effect of solar activity on minimum
temperature was observed in all the six stations. This was indicated in the
occurrence of modal periodicities of 6-month and 12-month observed across the
six synoptic stations. The synoptic stations are Sokoto (13.01°N, 5.15°E),
Ilorin (8.29°N, 4.35°E), Ikeja (6.35°N, 3.20°E), Enugu (6.28°N, 7.33°E),
Port-Harcourt (4.51°N, 7.01°E) and Maiduguri (11.51°N, 13.05°E). Similarly, the
trends of inter-decadal va-riability of minimum and maximum temperature show a
non-uniformity increase over the analyzed period with a slight decrease before
1960. The long term behavior of minimum and maximum temperature shows a warming
rate which ranges from 0.1°C/decade to 0.2°C/ decade
across the six stations except for maximum temperature at Ilorin and minimum
temperature at Sokoto which is at -0.2°C/decade and 0.3°C/decade respectively.