About

The Turkana Jet is a low-level jet which forms over East Africa. The Turkana Jet powers East Africa’s largest wind farm and transports vast quantities of water vapour toward the African interior. The jet is known to affect East African drought and flooding.

Much of what we know about the Turkana Jet derives from computer climate model simulations alone. RIFTJet was designed to retrieve the first direct observations of the Turkana Jet in 40 years.

The project ran in March-April 2021 and was based in Marsabit, near the Chalbi Desert, in northwest Kenya. The project is part of the REACH water security programme, and was a collaboration between University of Oxford, University of Nairobi and the Kenya Meteorological Department. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded the project.