Africa

United States of America

Associate Research Scientist ; Adjunct Assistant Professor

Columbia University, New York, New York

alesall@iri.columbia.edu

International Research Institute for Climate and Society
& School of International & Public Affairs
Columbia University

Home address:
109 Monell
IRI
P.O. Box 1000
Palisades, New York 10964 USA

phone: 845 680 4473

February 2001 - PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University,
with a dissertation on "Climate variability between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans: observations and modeling of Caribbean rainfall."

March 1995 - Laurea in Physics, University of Milan, Italy, with a thesis
on "Low frequency variability in the wintertime atmosphere of the
mid-latitudes and its modeling."

- African climate variability and change; drought and desertification in
the Sahel; monsoons and climate change.

- ENSO teleconnections and their interaction with variability in remote
ocean basins; predictability of tropical climate.

- The impact of climate on society; science and policy; the role of local
knowledge in adaptation to climate change.

Selected Refereed Publications:

2010. "Mechanisms of climate change in the semi-arid African Sahel: the
local view." Journal of Climate, 23, 743-756.

2009. With Greene, A. M. and S. E. Zebiak.
"Drought return times in the Sahel: A question of attribution. Geophysical
Research Letters, 36, L12701, doi:10.1029/2009GL038868

2009. With Tufa Dinka et al.
"Designing index-based weather insurance for farmers in Adi Ha, Ethiopia:
report to Oxfam America, July 2009. IRI technical report 09-04. New
York: International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia
University.

2008. With M. Biasutti and M. M. Verstraete.
"A climate model-based review of drought in the Sahel: desertification,
the re-greening and climate change." Global and Planetary Change, 64,
119-128, doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2008.05.004

2008. With Biasutti, I.M. Held and A. H. Sobel.
"A global perspective on African climate." Climatic Change, 90, 359.383,
doi:10.1007/s10584-008-9396-y

2006. With Biasutti, M.
"Robust Sahel drying in response to late 20th century forcings."
Geophysical Research Letters, 33, doi:10.1029/2006GL026067

2006. With Tippett, M. K.
"Potentially predictable components of African summer rainfall in a
SST-forced GCM simulation." Journal of Climate, 19, 3133-3144,
doi:10.1175/JCLI3779.1

2004. With R. Saravanan and P. Chang.
"The preconditioning role of Tropical Atlantic Variability in the
development of the ENSO teleconnection: implications for the prediction
of Nordeste rainfall." Climate Dynamics, 22, 839-855, doi:
10.1007/s00382-004-0420-2

2003. With R. Saravanan and P. Chang.
"Oceanic forcing of Sahel rainfall on interannual to interdecadal time
scales." Science, 302, 1027-1030. Published online 9 October 2003.
doi:10.1126/science.1089357

climatology ; ENSO teleconnections ; local knowledge ; public policy.