The Role of Moisture Conveyor Belts for Precipitation in the Atacama Desert

Abstract This study continues the investigation of airstreams in idealized moist baroclinic waves and addresses the formation of the cold conveyor belt (CCB), its linkage to the warm conveyor belt (WCB), and their impact on the development of a midlatitude cyclone. The CCB is identified as a coherent bundle of trajectories, characterized by weak ascent and a strong increase of potential vorticity (PV) along the flow, in contrast to the WCB, defined as the trajectories with maximum ascent. The authors illuminate the role of the two conveyor belts in the formation of two strong PV anomalies that form in the upper (WCB, negative PV anomaly) and lower troposphere (CCB, positive PV anomaly), respectively, and thereby establish a link between these airstreams and relevant aspects of the dynamics of extratropical cyclones. The CCB moves close to the surface along the colder side of the bent-back front and experiences a PV increase as it passes below a region of maximum latent heat release at midtropospheric levels. Accordingly, it arrives with high PV values at the tail of the bent-back front where the most intense low-level winds occur. The WCB, which rises above the bent-back front, causes the formation of the midtropospheric heating rate maximum and thereby not only influences the upper-level downstream development, but also drives the increase of PV along the CCB and, in consequence, indirectly drives the formation of the low-level jet at the tail of the bent-back front.

Download Full-text

Transatlantic Techno Myths: The 1994 Arica Eclipse Rave as an Example of the History and Historiography of Electronic Dance Music between Chile and Germany

twentieth century music ◽

10.1017/s1478572220000201 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 419-433

Author(s):

MATTHIAS PASDZIERNY

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Atacama Desert ◽

Dance Music ◽

Intercultural Understanding ◽

Electronic Dance Music ◽

International History ◽

Cultural Mediators ◽

History Of ◽

Event Based

AbstractThis article focuses on one of the earliest truly international Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festivals: the Eclipse Rave in Arica, in the Chilean Atacama Desert in November 1994. As a collaboration of mainly German and Chilean individuals, the event was confronted with a multitude of organizational obstacles and problems of intercultural understanding. Nevertheless, the event has now achieved a kind of cult status and is mythologized as the breakthrough moment of EDM culture in South America. Drawing on German and Chilean sources, the article sheds light on the background and impact of the festival and discusses the important role of Chilean-German exiles as interpreters and cultural mediators within EDM scenes. This contribution questions the types of sources that festivals and similar events generate, and consequently asks how an international history of the event-based and present- and history-obsessed EDM culture could be written at all.

Download Full-text

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences ◽

10.1175/jas-d-15-0302.1 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 73 (10) ◽

pp. 3997-4020 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Hanin Binder ◽

Maxi Boettcher ◽

Hanna Joos ◽

Heini Wernli

Keyword(s):

Northern Hemisphere ◽

Extratropical Cyclones ◽

Cyclone Center ◽

Explosive Cyclones ◽

Conveyor Belts ◽

Upper Level ◽

Hemisphere Winter ◽

Warm Conveyor Belts ◽

Northern Hemisphere Winter

Abstract The role of warm conveyor belts (WCBs) and their associated positive low-level potential vorticity (PV) anomalies are investigated for extratropical cyclones in Northern Hemisphere winter, using ERA-Interim and composite techniques. The Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.68 implies a moderate to strong correlation between cyclone intensification and WCB strength. Hereby, cyclone intensification is quantified by the normalized maximum 24-h central sea level pressure deepening and WCB strength by the WCB air mass associated with the cyclone’s 24-h period of strongest deepening. Explosively intensifying cyclones typically have strong WCBs and pronounced WCB-related PV production in the cyclone center; they are associated with a WCB of type W2, which ascends close to the cyclone center. Cyclones with similar WCB strength but weak intensification are either diabatic Rossby waves, which do not interact with an upper-level disturbance, or cyclones where much of the WCB-related PV production occurs far from the cyclone center and thereby does not contribute strongly to cyclone deepening (WCB of type W1, which ascends mainly along the cold front). The category of explosively intensifying cyclones with weak WCBs is inhomogeneous but often characterized by a very low tropopause or latent heating independent of WCBs. These findings reveal that (i) diabatic PV production in WCBs is essential for the intensification of many explosive cyclones, (ii) the importance of WCBs for cyclone development strongly depends on the location of the PV production relative to the cyclone center, and (iii) a minority of explosive cyclones is not associated with WCBs.

Download Full-text

First record of Myopa metallica Camras, 1992 (Diptera: Conopidae: Myopinae) in Northern Chile after 46 years: A case study of the success of citizen science programs

Journal of Insect Biodiversity ◽

10.12976/jib/2017.5.13 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (13) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Rodrigo M. Barahona-Segovia ◽

Rodrigo Castillo Tapia ◽

Laura Pañinao Monsálvez

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

New Record ◽

Atacama Desert ◽

First Record ◽

Science Program ◽

Northern Chile ◽

Wallacean Shortfall

The Wallacean shortfall is one of the most important problems regarding our knowledge of where and how to protect biodiversity. Citizen science programs can help fill this shortfall. A new record of the rare thick-head fly Myopa metallica Camras, 1992 is reported by a citizen science program from the Atacama desert after 46 years without new data and represents the second worldwide individual recorded of the species. We discuss the key role of the citizen science in the collection of new data on occurrence for rare and poorly known species.

Download Full-text

Characterisation of seed dormancy of 12 Chilean species of Nolana (Solanaceae) from the coastal Atacama Desert

Seed Science Research ◽

10.1017/s0960258520000434 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Josefina Hepp ◽

Miguel Gómez ◽

Pedro León-Lobos ◽

Gloria Montenegro ◽

Luis Vilalobos ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Seed Dormancy ◽

Atacama Desert ◽

Distilled Water ◽

Latitudinal Distribution ◽

Physical Dormancy ◽

Physiological Dormancy ◽

Arid Habitat ◽

The Relationship ◽

Germination Requirements

Abstract The genus Nolana (Solanaceae) comprises numerous species endemic to the coastal Atacama Desert of Chile and Peru of high ornamental potential and conservation value. The environments in which these species have evolved and are present today correspond to particular conditions in the midst of a hyper-arid habitat, so the study of their germination requirements and characterisation of seed dormancy becomes important in terms of conservation but also for ecological and evolutionary purposes. Different treatments were performed on mericarps of 12 species of Nolana: control (intact seeds imbibed in distilled water), scarification in funicular plug and distilled water and scarification in funicular plug and addition of GA3 (500 ppm); their permeability to water was also tested. It was determined that the species did not present physical dormancy, as had been previously reported, but rather physiological dormancy (PD). Germination results after treatments were not homogeneous among all 12 species, indicating differences in their dormancy levels. Also, the important role of the endosperm in the prevention of germination for the studied Nolana species was highlighted. Regarding the relationship between the level of PD (expressed as the percentage of germination for the most successful treatment) and the latitudinal distribution of the species or their phylogenetic closeness, it was determined that, for the studied species, their proximity in terms of clades was more relevant than their latitudinal distribution.

Download Full-text