Bibliography: leaves 93-101. / Relationships between the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon (ENSO), seasonal rainfall, and atmospheric circulation patterns at the 1000 hPa and 500 hPa levels are investigated. Firstly, correlations between early-summer (October to December), late-summer (January to March) rainfall over South Africa, and sea-surface temperatures in the NINO3 region in the equatorial Pacific Ocean were investigated, where the correlations in the case for late-summer showed much better spatial coherence than in the case for early-summer. Consequently, the study further concentrated only on late summer. The influence of the quasi 18-20 year oscillation of summer rainfall on the effect of El Niño and La Niña events was also investigated, and it was found that during an epoch of above-normal/below-normal rainfall a moderating effect is evident on the severity of El Niño/La Niña events so that on average even above-normal/below-normal rainfall is experienced during such events. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was applied to different combinations of years, to find associations between equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperatures and deviations in circulation patterns during certain years. Some at the above results were then verified by model runs, to further prove the relationships not to be coincidental, and to add more degrees of freedom. The results of CCA were then separately interpreted for each combination of seasons (e. g. El Niño during the above-normal phase at the 500 hPa level) with the aid of average circulation maps for different combinations of years. Above - or below-normal rainfall during such years could then be explained in terms of deviations of general synoptic features at the surface and 500 hPa levels.

Tropical Cyclones are one of the most devastating natural phenomena. Previous attempts to simulate Tropical Cyclones (TCs) over the South West Indian Ocean (SWIO) have used Global Circulation Models (GCMs) with uniform grid. This study examines the capability of a GCM with adaptive grid stretching (CAM-EULAG, hereafter CEU) in simulating the characteristics of TCs over the SWIO. In the study, the CEU model is applied with a fine horizontal grid resolution (0.5°x0.5°) over the SWIO and coarser resolution (1°x1° - 2°x2.25°) over the rest of the globe. The model simulation is performed for 11 years (1999-2010) and validated against the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) best track observation, Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) satellite data, and ERA-Interim (ERAINT) reanalysis data. The study also considers the impact of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the South Atlantic Subtropical Dipole (SASD) on TC counts over the SWIO.

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