Institut für Intelligente Systemtechnologien, Fakultät für Technische Wissenschaften, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Österreich, Austria
Wavelet analysis was applied to the standardized rainfall time series in the south-eastern in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to determine periods of rainfall fluctuations in this region at interannual and decennial timescales and to assess the influence of regional or remote climate phenomena on the rainfall of that sector between 1940 and 1997. The local, the global and the scale-averaged wavelet power spectrum of the rainfall time series of that sector indicate an important fluctuation between practically 1960 and 1970. Wavelet coherence spectral analysis shows that the southern oscillation El Nino phenomenon, the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool, the Atlantic Ocean climate variability and the Indian Ocean dipole have a very weak influence on rainfall on this territory. Scale-averaged wavelet coherence in 2-16 years band is lower than 0.5 whatever the climate index considered. Other factors must also be considered in the study of rainfall variability in this study area.