scholarly journals Role of moisture transport for Central American precipitation

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana María Durán-Quesada ◽  
Luis Gimeno ◽  
Jorge Amador
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Rainy Season ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Central American ◽  
Moisture Supply ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Precipitation Trends

Abstract. A climatology of moisture sources linked with Central American precipitation was computed based upon Lagrangian trajectories for the analysis period 1980–2013. The response of the annual cycle of precipitation in terms of moisture supply from the sources was analysed. Regional precipitation patterns are mostly driven by moisture transport from the Caribbean Sea (CS). Moisture supply from the eastern tropical Pacific (ETPac) and northern South America (NSA) exhibits a strong seasonal pattern but weaker compared to CS. The regional distribution of rainfall is largely influenced by a local signal associated with surface fluxes during the first part of the rainy season, whereas large-scale dynamics forces rainfall during the second part of the rainy season. The Caribbean Low Level Jet (CLLJ) and the Chocó Jet (CJ) are the main conveyors of regional moisture, being key to define the seasonality of large-scale forced rainfall. Therefore, interannual variability of rainfall is highly dependent of the regional LLJs to the atmospheric variability modes. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was found to be the dominant mode affecting moisture supply for Central American precipitation via the modulation of regional phenomena. Evaporative sources show opposite anomaly patterns during warm and cold ENSO phases, as a result of the strengthening and weakening, respectively, of the CLLJ during the summer months. Trends in both moisture supply and precipitation over the last three decades were computed, results suggest that precipitation trends are not homogeneous for Central America. Trends in moisture supply from the sources identified show a marked north–south seesaw, with an increasing supply from the CS Sea to northern Central America. Long-term trends in moisture supply are larger for the transition months (March and October). This might have important implications given that any changes in the conditions seen during the transition to the rainy season may induce stronger precipitation trends.

scholarly journals Role of moisture transport for Central American precipitation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana María Durán-Quesada ◽  
Luis Gimeno ◽  
Jorge Amador
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Rainy Season ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Caribbean Sea ◽  
Central American ◽  
Moisture Supply ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Precipitation Trends

Abstract. A climatology of moisture sources linked with Central American precipitation was computed based upon Lagrangian trajectories for the analysis period 1980–2013. The response of the annual cycle of precipitation in terms of moisture supply from the sources was analysed. Regional precipitation patterns are mostly driven by moisture transport from the Caribbean Sea (CS). Moisture supply from the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETPac) and Northern South America (NSA) exhibits a strong seasonal pattern but weaker compared to CS. The regional distribution of rainfall is largely influenced by a local signal associated with surface fluxes during the first part of the rainy season, whereas large scale dynamics forces rainfall during the second part of the rainy season. The Caribbean Low Level Jet (CLLJ) and the Chocó Jet (CJ) are the main conveyors of regional moisture, being key to define the seasonality of large scale forced rainfall. Therefore, interannual variability of rainfall is highly dependent of the regional LLJs to the atmospheric variability modes. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was found to be the dominant mode affecting moisture supply for Central American precipitation via the modulation of regional phenomena. Evaporative sources show opposite anomaly patterns during warm and cold ENSO phases, as a result of the strengthening and weakening, respectively, of the CLLJ during the summer months. Trends in both moisture supply and precipitation over the last three decades were computed, results suggest that precipitation trends are not homogeneous for Central America. Trends in moisture supply from the sources identified show a marked north-south seesaw, with an increasing supply from the Caribbean Sea to northern Central America. Long term trends in moisture supply are larger for the transition months (March and October). This might have important implications given that any changes in the conditions seen during the transition to the rainy season may induce stronger precipitation trends.

scholarly journals A Transbasin Mode of Interannual Variability of the Central American Gap Winds: Seasonality and Large-Scale Forcing

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (20) ◽  
pp. 8223-8235
Author(s):  
Jun-Chao Yang ◽  
Xiaopei Lin ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Walker Circulation ◽  
Central American ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Wind Variability ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Gap Winds

Abstract A transbasin mode (TBM) is identified as the leading mode of interannual surface wind variability over the Intra-Americas Seas across Central America based on empirical orthogonal function analysis. The TBM is associated with variability in Central American gap winds, most closely with the Papagayo jet but with considerable signals over the Gulfs of Tehuantepec and Panama. Although El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the main large-scale forcing, the TBM features a distinct seasonality due to sea level pressure (SLP) adjustments across the Pacific and Atlantic. During July–September, ENSO causes meridional SLP gradient anomalies across Central America, intensifying anomalous geostrophic winds funneling through Papagayo to form the TBM. During wintertime, ENSO peaks but imparts little anomalous SLP gradient across Central America with a weak projection on the TBM because of the competing effects of the Pacific–North American teleconnection and tropospheric Kelvin waves. Besides ENSO, tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies make a weak contribution to the TBM in boreal summer by strengthening the cross-basin gradient. ENSO and the Atlantic forcing constitute a cross-basin seesaw pattern in SLP, manifested as an anomalous Walker circulation across the tropical Americas. The TBM appears to be part of the low-level branch of the anomalous Walker circulation, which modulates Central American wind jets by orographic effect. This study highlights the seasonality of gap wind variability, and calls for further research into its influence on regional climate.

Identification of Tropical Cyclones’ Critical Positions Associated with Extreme Precipitation Events in Central America

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo G. Hidalgo ◽  
Eric J. Alfaro ◽  
Franklin Hernández-Castro ◽  
Paula M. Pérez-Briceño
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Critical Path ◽  
Central American ◽  
Pacific Basin ◽  
Extreme Precipitation Events ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Indirect Impacts ◽  
Precipitation Events

<p>Tropical cyclones are one of the most important causes of disasters in Central America. Using historical (1970–2010) tracks of cyclones in the Caribbean and Pacific basin, we identify critical path locations where these low-pressure systems cause the highest number of floods in a set of 88 precipitation stations in the region. Results show that tropical cyclones from the Caribbean and Pacific basin produce a large number of indirect impacts on the Pacific slope of the Central American isthmus. Although the direct impact of a tropical cyclone usually results in devastation in the affected region, the indirect effects are more common and sometimes equally severe. In fact, the storm does not need to be an intense hurricane to cause considerable impacts and damage. The location of even a lower intensity storm in critical positions of the oceanic basin can result in destructive indirect impacts in Central America. The identification of critical positions can be used for emergency agencies in the region to issue alerts of possible flooding and catastrophic events.</p>

The African Presence in Central American History

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robinson Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Central American ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Spanish Conquest ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Sub Saharan

Far from monolithic, the seven Central American countries—Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama—each have unique cultural traditions and historical trajectories. Their different geographies, while not deterministic in any facile manner, influenced their development in ways that continue to shape their national characteristics. The cataclysmic 16th-century Spanish Conquest introduced new peoples and cultural traditions to the region. African slaves, primarily from the sub-Saharan region, accompanied the first Spanish ventures, and, later, as the colonies consolidated and grew, peoples of African descent, both enslaved and free, became a part of the area’s economic and cultural landscape. Starting in the late 18th century, African peoples from the Caribbean—whether forcefully exiled or as a result of searching for economic opportunities—traveled to Central America. Despite a contemporary collective historical amnesia that imagines Africans isolated in specific regions, namely the Caribbean coast, peoples of African descent can be found throughout the Central American nations. Rather than addressing each country, a thematic approach that focuses on the Spanish Conquest, slavery, emancipation, the ethnogenesis of African connected cultures, the historical erasure of Africans, and the contributions of peoples of African descent helps to understand the complex ways that peoples of African descent have impacted the history of modern Central America. For far from isolated to small populations along the Caribbean, the African presence can be discerned throughout the region, even in places often perceived as entirely devoid of its influence.

scholarly journals The easternmost tropical Pacific. Part II: Seasonal and intraseasonal modes of atmospheric variability

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge A. Amador ◽  
A. M. Durán-Quesada ◽  
E. R. Rivera ◽  
G. Mora ◽  
F. Sáenz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Seasonal Migration ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The Caribbean

<p>This is Part II of a two-part review about climate and climate variability focused on the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) and the Caribbean Sea (CS). Both parts are aimed at providing oceanographers, marine biologists, and other ocean scientists, a guiding base for ocean-atmosphere interaction processes affecting the CS, the ETP, and the waters of Isla del Coco. Isla del Coco National Park is a Costa Rican World Heritage site. Part I analyzed the mean fields for both basins and a larger region covering 25º S - 35º N, 20º W - 130º W. Here we focus on a smaller area (65º W - 95º W, 0º - 20º N), as a complement to Part 1. Incoming solar radiation and surface energy fluxes reveal the complex nature of the ETP and CS for convective activity and precipitation on seasonal and intraseasonal time scales. Both regions are relevant as sources of evaporation and the associated moisture transport processes. The American Monsoon System influences the climate and climate variability of the ETP and CS, however, the precise way systems affect regional precipitation and transport of moisture, within the Intra Americas Sea (IAS) are not clear. Although the Caribbean Low-Level Jet (CLLJ) is known to act as a conveyor belt for moisture transport, intraseasonal and seasonal modes of the CLLJ and their interactions with other IAS systems, have to be further investigated. Trans-isthmic jets, exert a variable seasonal wind stress force over the ocean surface co-generating regions of great marine productivity. Isolated convection, the seasonal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the hurricane season, the Mid-Summer Drought, the seasonal and intraseasonal behavior of low-level jets and their interactions with transients, and the southward incursion of cold fronts contribute to regional seasonal precipitation. Many large-scale systems, such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO, also influence the variability of precipitation by modulating regional features associated with convection and precipitation. Monthly tropical storm (TS) activity in the CS and ETP basins is restricted to the period May-November, with very few cases in December. The CS presents TS peak activity during August, as well as for the number of hurricanes and major hurricanes, in contrast to the ETP that shows the same features during September.</p><div> </div>

Cooperation in the Central American Region: The Organization of Central American States

1957 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman J. Padelford
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Central American ◽  
Organization Of American States ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
American States ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Regional Grouping ◽  
American Region

For more than a century intellectuals and statesmen in Central America have kept alive a Bolivarian dream of fashioning a political unity in the isthmian region of the Americas. The formation of the Organization of Central American States in 1951 marked a signal accomplishment along a pathway strewn with many obstacles and previous frustrations. The establishment of this organization added a third regional grouping to the two already present in the Americas— the Organization of American States and the Caribbean Commission. It remains to be seen to what extent the three will be able to work together when questions affecting interests of the hemisphere as a whole arise.

scholarly journals Identification of Tropical Cyclones’ Critical Positions Associated with Extreme Precipitation Events in Central America

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1123
Author(s):  
Hugo G. Hidalgo ◽  
Eric J. Alfaro ◽  
Franklin HernÃandez-Castro ◽  
Paula M. Pérez-Briceño
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Critical Path ◽  
Central American ◽  
Pacific Basin ◽  
Extreme Precipitation Events ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Indirect Impacts ◽  
Precipitation Events

Tropical cyclones are one of the most important causes of disasters in Central America. Using historical (1970–2010) tracks of cyclones in the Caribbean and Pacific basin, we identify critical path locations where these low-pressure systems cause the highest number of floods in a set of 88 precipitation stations in the region. Results show that tropical cyclones from the Caribbean and Pacific basin produce a large number of indirect impacts on the Pacific slope of the Central American isthmus. Although the direct impact of a tropical cyclone usually results in devastation in the affected region, the indirect effects are more common and sometimes equally severe. In fact, the storm does not need to be an intense hurricane to cause considerable impacts and damage. The location of even a lower intensity storm in critical positions of the oceanic basin can result in destructive indirect impacts in Central America. The identification of critical positions can be used for emergency agencies in the region to issue alerts of possible flooding and catastrophic events.

scholarly journals Lactifluus (Russulaceae) diversity in Central America and the Caribbean: melting pot between realms

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 278-300
Author(s):  
L. Delgat ◽  
R. Courtecuisse ◽  
E. De Crop ◽  
F. Hampe ◽  
T.A. Hofmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Central American ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
Biogeographic Patterns ◽  
North American Continent ◽  
Caribbean Islands ◽  
The North ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Three New Species ◽  
Different Origins

Species of the ectomycorrhizal genus Lactifluus, and often entire sections, are typically unique to a single continent. Given these biogeographic patterns, an interesting region to study their diversity is Central America and the Caribbean, since the region is closely connected to and often considered a part of the North American continent, but biogeographically belong to the Neotropical realm, and comprises several regions with different geologic histories. Based on a multi-gene phylogeny and morphological study, this study shows that Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean harbour at least 35 Lactifluus species, of which 33 were never reported outside of this region. It was found that species from the Caribbean generally show affinities to South American taxa, while species from the Central American mainland generally show affinities to Northern hemispheric taxa. We hypothesise that host specificity and/or climate play a crucial role in these different origins of diversity. Because of these different affinities, Caribbean islands harbour a completely different Lactifluus diversity than the Central American mainland. The majority of species occurring on the islands can be considered endemic to certain islands or island groups. In this paper, detailed morphological descriptions are given, with a focus on the unique diversity of the islands, and identification keys to all hitherto described Lactifluus species occurring in Central America and the Caribbean are provided. One new section, Lactifluus sect. Nebulosi, and three new species, Lactifluus guadeloupensis, Lactifluus lepus and Lactifluus marmoratus are described.

Cotton and Cattle in the Pacific Lowlands of Central America

1965 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Central American ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Remarkable Change ◽  
Land Owners ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Volcanic Chain ◽  
Gulf Of Nicoya

The well-drained, fluvio-volcanic outwash plain of the Pacific coast of Central America, stretching from the Mexican border to the Gulf of Nicoya, has undergone remarkable change in recent years. Malarial control, highway and port construction, and the initiative of governments and private land-owners, have made this the most active zone of agricultural development in Central America. Large-scale mechanized cotton farms and livestock ranches have been eating rapidly into the dry tropical forest that until recently covered most of this coastal apron at the foot of the 700-mile long Central American volcanic chain, producing important new sources of employment and foreign exchange earnings. Acreage in sugar cane and essential oil grasses (citronella and lemon grass) also has been expanding, and the booming shrimp export trade has added yet another fillup to the economies of these pocket-sized countries so long plagued with coffee or banana monoculture.

The Belize Triangle: Relations with Britain, Guatemala and the United States

1990 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Payne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Central America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Central American ◽  
Democratic Change ◽  
Electoral Defeat ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Central American Isthmus

Within the international politics of the Caribbean Basin attention is only rarely paid to the position of Belize. This neglect is the more remarkable since Belize epitomizes — more precisely than any other territory of the region — the characteristic geopolitical problem of the Caribbean caught, as it were, uneasily between the United States, Latin America and Europe. Yet, despite being threatened by the Guatemalan claim to sovereignty over its territory, which delayed its independence until 1981, Belize has skillfully taken advantage of its British colonial past to carve out for itself a distinctive geopolitical space in Central America and the Caribbean. This has allowed it not only to remain relatively undisturbed by the conflicts which have riven the other states of the Central American isthmus, but also to display a commitment to democratic change strong enough to sustain the electoral defeat — in December 1984 — of a regime which had held power in the country for more than thirty years, as well as the defeat of its successor — in September 1989 — after just one term in office.

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