Effects of Amazon basin deforestation on regional atmospheric circulation and water vapor transport towards tropical South America

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 4169-4189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Ruiz-Vásquez ◽  
Paola A. Arias ◽  
J. Alejandro Martínez ◽  
Jhan Carlo Espinoza
2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 1902-1912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefina Moraes Arraut ◽  
Prakki Satyamurty

Abstract December–March climatologies of precipitation and vertically integrated water vapor transport were analyzed and compared to find the main paths by which moisture is fed to high-rainfall regions in the Southern Hemisphere in this season. The southern tropics (20°S–0°) exhibit high rainfall and receive ample moisture from the northern trades, except in the eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. This interhemispheric flow is particularly important for Amazonian rainfall, establishing the North Atlantic as the main source of moisture for the forest during its main rainy season. In the subtropics the rainfall distribution is very heterogeneous. The meridional average of precipitation between 35° and 25°S is well modulated by the meridional water vapor transport through the 25°S latitude circle, being greater where this transport is from the north and smaller where it is from the south. In South America, to the east of the Andes, the moisture that fuels precipitation between 20° and 30°S comes from both the tropical South and North Atlantic Oceans whereas between 30° and 40°S it comes mostly from the North Atlantic after passing over the Amazonian rain forest. The meridional transport (across 25°S) curve exhibits a double peak over South America and the adjacent Atlantic, which is closely reproduced in the mean rainfall curve. This corresponds to two local maxima in the two-dimensional field of meridional transport: the moisture corridor from Amazonia into the continental subtropics and the moisture flow coming from the southern tropical Atlantic into the subtropical portion of the South Atlantic convergence zone. These two narrow pathways of intense moisture flow could be suitably called “aerial rivers.” Their longitudinal positions are well defined. The yearly deviations from climatology for moisture flow and rainfall correlate well (0.75) for the continental peak but not for the oceanic peak (0.23). The structure of two maxima is produced by the effect of transients in the time scale of days.


2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 512-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Brahmananda Rao ◽  
Srinivasa R. Chapa ◽  
J. P. R. Fernandez ◽  
Sergio H. Franchito

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 2647-2665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jhoana Agudelo ◽  
Paola A. Arias ◽  
Sara C. Vieira ◽  
J. Alejandro Martínez

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1122
Author(s):  
Monica Ionita ◽  
Viorica Nagavciuc

The role of the large-scale atmospheric circulation in producing heavy rainfall events and floods in the eastern part of Europe, with a special focus on the Siret and Prut catchment areas (Romania), is analyzed in this study. Moreover, a detailed analysis of the socio-economic impacts of the most extreme flood events (e.g., July 2008, June–July 2010, and June 2020) is given. Analysis of the largest flood events indicates that the flood peaks have been preceded up to 6 days in advance by intrusions of high Potential Vorticity (PV) anomalies toward the southeastern part of Europe, persistent cut-off lows over the analyzed region, and increased water vapor transport over the catchment areas of Siret and Prut Rivers. The vertically integrated water vapor transport prior to the flood peak exceeds 300 kg m−1 s−1, leading to heavy rainfall events. We also show that the implementation of the Flood Management Plan in Romania had positive results during the 2020 flood event compared with the other flood events, when the authorities took several precaution measurements that mitigated in a better way the socio-economic impact and risks of the flood event. The results presented in this study offer new insights regarding the importance of large-scale atmospheric circulation and water vapor transport as drivers of extreme flooding in the eastern part of Europe and could lead to a better flood forecast and flood risk management.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
Dong’ang Liu ◽  
Jian Sun ◽  
Changlong Guan

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 4243-4257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puxi Li ◽  
Tianjun Zhou ◽  
Xiaolong Chen

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1732-1747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Roberge ◽  
John R. Gyakum ◽  
Eyad H. Atallah

Abstract Significant cool season precipitation along the western coast of North America is often associated with intense water vapor transport (IWVT) from the Pacific Ocean during favorable synoptic-scale flow regimes. These relatively narrow and intense regions of water vapor transport can originate in either the tropical or subtropical oceans, and sometimes have been referred to as Pineapple Express events in previous literature when originating near Hawaii. However, the focus of this paper will be on diagnosing the synoptic-scale signatures of all significant water vapor transport events associated with poleward moisture transport impacting the western coast of Canada, regardless of the exact points of origin of the associated atmospheric river. A trajectory analysis is used to partition the events as a means of creating coherent and meaningful synoptic-scale composites. The results indicate that these IWVT events can be clustered by the general area of origin of the majority of the saturated parcels impacting British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. IWVT events associated with more zonal trajectories are characterized by a strong and mature Aleutian low, whereas IWVT events associated with more meridional trajectories are often characterized by an anticyclone situated along the California or Oregon coastline, and a relatively mature poleward-traveling cyclone, commonly originating in the central North Pacific.


1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Hanna ◽  
P. W. Scherer

A steady-state, one-dimensional theoretical model of human respiratory heat and water vapor transport is developed. Local mass transfer coefficients measured in a cast replica of the upper respiratory tract are incorporated into the model along with heat transfer coefficients determined from the Chilton-Colburn analogy and from data in the literature. The model agrees well with reported experimental measurements and predicts that the two most important parameters of the human air-conditioning process are: 1) the blood temperature distribution along the airway walls, and 2) the total cross-sectional area and perimeter of the nasal cavity. The model also shows that the larynx and pharynx can actually gain water over a respiratory cycle and are the regions of the respiratory tract most subject to drying. With slight modification, the model can be used to investigate respiratory heat and water vapor transport in high stress environments, pollutant gas uptake in the respiratory tract, and the connection between respiratory air-conditioning and the function of the mucociliary escalator.


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