# Towards Resolving Challenges Associated with Climate Change Modelling in Africa
## 4 Results  
Publication numbers were relatively low in the initial years of the study--a mere 14 and 15 articles listing uncertainties in their research for 2011 and 2012 (Figure 2), respectively. The primary concerns for the authors were the quality and discontinuous nature of observation records (see [PERSON] et al. [38] and [PERSON] et al. [39]), with some opting to interpolate or infill missing data points, such as [PERSON] et al. [40]; in addition to the poor spatial resolution of the available data [PERSON] et al. [41], noted the need to implement multiple avenues for data acquisition (see Tables S1-S11). In the following years, from 2013-2020, the average number of papers increased to 54, with a low of 41 in 2014 and a high of 67 in 2017 (Figure 2). Data limitations and observation station sparsity are still a commonly cited concern for many researchers in the years 2013-2020 (see Tables S1-S11) for a full list of relevant publications citing this limitation). The lack of a spatially extensive, high-temporal resolution observation network has limited the attempts to evaluate the impacts of climate change in several societal domains when utilizing simulation outputs from Global Climate Model (GCM), often embedded in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP); as well as Regional Climate Model (RCM), carried out within the framework of the COordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) initiative [29; 33; 42; 43; 44; 45]. The latter authors noted that the lack of precipitation-related variables in mountainous regions may lead to interpolation errors. This was reiterated at a more regional scale by [PERSON] et al. [34], who argued that South Africa lacked a comprehensive national system to provide spatially extensive climate data, further noting the difficulty and costly nature of obtaining national data for hydrological modelling. This is one of many constraints on modelling-related research in the areas of agriculture, biodiversity, human health, amongst others, in South Africa [34]. Many authors state that some of the above issues have been partially overcome by utilizing satellite-derived data and analyses; see, for instance, the works of [PERSON] [46] and colleagues and [PERSON] et al. [17]. Although satellite-derived data come with their own challenges--for instance, low spatial and temporal resolution and the need for cloud-free imagery (see [PERSON] et al. [47])--unique research avenues can be followed, as exemplified by [PERSON] et al. [48], who provided insights into the emerging link between spatial planning and climate change adaptation using GIS and earth observation data in South Africa [PERSON] et al. [49] used GIS and remote sensing to map flood-induced  
Figure 3: Author affiliations as noted from the survey, namely, articles which included African-based authors either as a first author or as a co-author and those published with no African-based affiliations. risks due to changes in weather patterns in the southern African region. Inherent uncertainties are associated with the accuracy of climate models because of data limitations [PERSON] et al. [50] attributed the inaccuracy of their African rainfall climatology model to the unavailability of daily Global Telecommunication System (GTS) gauge reports in real time and deficiencies in the satellite estimates associated with precipitation processes over coastal and orographic areas. The complexity of climate dynamics and diversity in processes over the African continent also raises issues in creating reliable model outputs, as noted by [PERSON] et al. [51] when employing an ensemble of climate projections from CORDEX simulations over west Africa. This has led to contradictory conclusions for the same region [52]. Additionally, the computational power and time investment required to run these models is a global issue [53; 54; 55; 56; 57] (e.g., CMIP and CORDEX), and can be beyond the reach of many researchers, leading to the necessity of collaboration with international partners.