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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Clim.
Sec. Climate Monitoring
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fclim.2025.1462626
This article is part of the Research Topic Temperature and Hydrometeorological Extremes View all 3 articles

A 40-Year Remote Sensing Analysis of Spatiotemporal Temperature and Rainfall Patterns in Senegal

Provisionally accepted
Catherine Lilian Nakalembe Catherine Lilian Nakalembe 1*Diana Botchway Frimpong Diana Botchway Frimpong 1Hannah Kerner Hannah Kerner 2Mamadou Adama SARR Mamadou Adama SARR 3
  • 1 University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
  • 2 Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States
  • 3 Centre de Suivi Ecologique, Dakar, Senegal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Climate change impacts manifest differently worldwide, with many African countries, including Senegal, being particularly vulnerable. The decline in ground observations and limited access to these observations continue to impede research efforts to understand, plan, and mitigate the current and future impacts of climate change. This occurs at a time of rapid growth in Earth observations (EO) data, methodologies, and computational capabilities, which could potentially augment studies in data-scarce regions. In this study, we utilized satellite remote sensing data leveraging historical EO data using Google Earth Engine to investigate spatio-temporal rainfall and temperature patterns in Senegal from 1981 to 2020. We combined CHIRPS precipitation data and ERA5-Land reanalysis datasets for remote sensing analysis and used the Mann-Kendall and Sen's Slope statistical tests for trend detection. Our results indicate that annual temperatures and precipitation increased by 0.73°C and 18 mm in Senegal from 1981 to 2020. All six of Senegal's agroecological zones showed statistically significant upward precipitation trends. However, the Casamance, Ferlo, Eastern Senegal, Groundnut Basin, and Senegal River Valley regions exhibited statistically significant upward trends in temperature. In the south, the approach to climate change would be centered on the effects of increased rainfall, such as flooding and soil erosion. Conversely, in the drier northern areas such as Podo and Saint Louis, the focus would be on addressing water scarcity and drought conditions. High temperatures in key crop-producing regions, such as Saraya, Goudiry, and Tambacounda in the Eastern Senegal area also threaten crop yields, especially maize, sorghum, millet, and peanuts. By acknowledging and addressing the unique impacts of climate change on various agroecological zones, policymakers and stakeholders can develop and implement customized adaptation strategies that are more successful in fostering resilience and ensuring sustainable agricultural production in the face of a changing climate.

    Keywords: Senegal, climate variability, satellite remote sensing, Google Earth Engine, Climate trend

    Received: 10 Jul 2024; Accepted: 10 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Nakalembe, Frimpong, Kerner and SARR. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Catherine Lilian Nakalembe, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.