Author(s) : Dorcas A. Addo, Francis T. Oduro and Richard K. AnsahPages : [121] - [141]
Received : February 24, 2017; Revised July 12, 2017
Climate change has serious implications on food security and livelihood in West Africa since it modulates the socio-economic activities in the sub region. The inter-decadal, seasonal, and inter-annual precipitation variability over Ghana has been studied and their spatial and temporal patterns analysed using empirical orthogonal function approach with a view to detecting climate change. A secondary monthly mean precipitation space-time series data from 1970-2010 from Climate Research Unit (CRU) at a high-resolution of 0.5 ´ 0.5 has been used in this analysis. Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis was used to study the spatial and temporal trend of monthly mean precipitation and temperature over Ghana. A decadal and inter-annual variation of the spatial and temporal patterns were observed respectively. The temporal analysis showed a decrease of precipitation.
empirical orthogonal function, principal component, precipitation.
