In this study we identified a significant low frequency variability (8 to 20 years) that characterizes the hydroclimatology over the Central Andes. Decadal–interdecadal variability is related to the central-western Pacific Ocean (R² = 0.50) and the zonal wind at 200 hPa above the Central Andes (R² = 0.66). These two oceanic–atmospheric variables have a dominant decadal–interdecadal variability, and there is a strong relationship between them at a low frequency time scale (R² = 0.66). During warming decades in the central-western Pacific Ocean, westerlies are intensified at 200 hPa above the Central Andes, which produce decadal periods of hydrological deficit over this region. In contrast, when the central-western Pacific Ocean is cooler than usual, easterly anomalies prevail over the Central Andes, which are associated with decades of positive hydrological anomalies over this re...

En este estudio, en revisión para publicación en Environmental Research Letters, se analizaron ocho estaciones hidrométricas que sintetizan las lluvias de la región sur de nuestro país entre los meses de enero a marzo (Figura 1a; Tabla 1). Las estaciones Pascana y Puente Santa Rosa, que se ubican en el río Tambo, se analizaron conjuntamente formando una sola serie hidrológica de 1956-2014 llamada Tambo. Analizando las series temporales anuales (Figura 1b), se puede observar que existen periodos de años secos y húmedos que son comunes en todas las estaciones, lo cual sugiere un proceso de variabilidad cuasi-decadal (periodo > 8 años) independiente de El Niño. Para estudiar la variabilidad decadal e interdecadal, se usó el promedio de la serie anual del nivel de agua del lago Titicaca y la serie Tambo, ya que estas son las dos series hidrológicas de mayor duración (1956-2014)...

This paper focuses on the representation of the air surface temperature and precipitation using high spatiotemporal simulations (3 km-1 h) of the WRF3.7.1 model in the central Peruvian area. It covers, from east to west, the coastal zone, the western slope of the Andes, the Andean Mantaro basin (500-5000 masl), and the Andes-Amazon transition region in the eastern Andes. The study covers the January months from 2004 to 2008. Three experiments were conducted using different topography and land use data sources: (1) a control simulation using the default WRF topography and land use datasets from the United States Geological Survey (USGS); (2) a simulation changing only the topography by using the SRTM topography dataset; and (3) a simulation changing the land use data of (2) by a new dataset adapted from Eva et al. (2004). SRTM topography performed better than the control simulation for re...

Este trabajo analiza el impacto de la deforestación amazónica en la precipitación de los Andes centrales del Perú durante la temporada húmeda, haciendo uso del modelo atmosférico Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF, por sus siglas en inglés). La región de estudio abarca la ciudad de Lima y localidades ubicadas en la cuenca del río Mantaro, de suma importancia debido a su elevada densidad poblacional. En tal sentido, se configuró el modelo WRF para la región de estudio bajo dos escenarios: uno con la Amazonía sin deforestación y otro con un 40 % de deforestación. Debido a la compleja topografía de la región se utilizaron múltiples dominios de alta resolución en el modelo. Los resultados preliminares muestran que, como consecuencia de la deforestación del 40 % en la Amazonía, se prevén cambios relativos netos en la precipitación en la cuenca del río Mantaro y...

Regional climate models (RCMs) are widely used to assess future impacts associated with climate change at regional and local scales. RCMs must represent relevant climate variables in the present-day climate to be considered fit-for-purpose for impact assessment. This condition is particularly difficult to meet over complex regions such as the Andes-Amazon transition region, where the Andean topography and abundance of tropical rainfall regimes remain a challenge for numerical climate models. In this study, we evaluate the ability of 30 regional climate simulations (6 RCMs driven by 10 global climate models) to reproduce historical (1981–2005) rainfall climatology and temporal variability over the Andes-Amazon transition region. We assess spatio-temporal features such as spatial distribution of rainfall, focusing on the orographic effects over the Andes-Amazon “rainfall hotspots” re...

The Andes-Amazon transition region features critically important ecological services on the local, regional and global scales. This region is among the rainiest zones in the world, with rainfall rates of up to 7000 mm/year. However, the physical mechanisms leading to the existence of these “precipitation hotspots” remain poorly known. Here, we attempt to disentangle the controlling atmospheric mechanisms exerted by local topographic structures that started to uplift about 5–10 million years ago in response to the Nazca Ridge subduction, in the vicinity of the Quincemil hotspot, the most intense of them. We first use the Weather Research and Forecasting model to conduct sensitivity tests to planetary boundary layer parameterizations at 5 km horizontal grid spacing during the austral summer of 2012–13. After finding the most suitable configuration in terms of the diurnal cycle of r...

The estimation of precipitation over the broad range of scales of interest for climatologists, meteorologists and hydrologists is challenging at high altitudes of tropical regions, where the spatial variability of precipitation is important while in situ measurements remain scarce largely due to operational constraints. Three different types of rainfall products – ground based (kriging interpolation), satellite derived (TRMM3B42), and atmospheric model outputs (WRF – Weather Research and Forecasting) – are compared for 1 hydrological year in order to retrieve rainfall patterns at timescales ranging from sub-daily to annual over a watershed of approximately 10 000 km² in Peru. An ensemble of three different spatial resolutions is considered for the comparison (27, 9 and 3 km), as long as well as a range of timescales (annual totals, daily rainfall patterns, diurnal cycle). WR...

The Andes/Amazon transition is among the rainiest regions of the world and the interactionsbetween large-scale circulation and the topography that determine its complex rainfall distribution remainpoorly known. This work provides an in-depth analysis of the spatial distribution, variability, and intensity ofrainfall in the southern Andes/Amazon transition, at seasonal and intraseasonal time scales. The analysis isbased on comprehensive daily rainfall data sets from meteorological stations in Peru and Bolivia. We com-pare our results with high-resolution rainfall TRMM-PR 2A25 estimations. Hotspot regions are identified atlow elevations in the Andean foothills (400–700 masl) and in windward conditions at Quincemil and Chipir-iri, where more than 4000 mm rainfall per year are recorded. Orographic effects and exposure to easterlywinds produce a strong annual rainfall gradient between the ...

The Andes/Amazon transition is among the rainiest regions of the world and the interactions between large‐scale circulation and the topography that determine its complex rainfall distribution remain poorly known. This work provides an in‐depth analysis of the spatial distribution, variability, and intensity of rainfall in the southern Andes/Amazon transition, at seasonal and intraseasonal time scales. The analysis is based on comprehensive daily rainfall data sets from meteorological stations in Peru and Bolivia. We compare our results with high‐resolution rainfall TRMM‐PR 2A25 estimations. Hotspot regions are identified at low elevations in the Andean foothills (400–700 masl) and in windward conditions at Quincemil and Chipiriri, where more than 4000 mm rainfall per year are recorded. Orographic effects and exposure to easterly winds produce a strong annual rainfall gradient b...

El presente avance de investigación evalúa el realismo de la climatología histórica (1981-2005) de la precipitación de verano en la zona de transición Andes-Amazonía a partir de las simulaciones del experimento regional coordinado de reducción de escala (CORDEX, por sus siglas en inglés) para Sudamérica. Los resultados preliminares muestran que no habría una relación aparente entre la performance del modelo y la resolución espacial en cuanto a la reproducción de las climatologías de precipitación, cuando se esperaría que los modelos tengan un mejor rendimiento, es decir, reproduzcan mejor las precipitaciones al tener una resolución espacial más alta o más fina. En conclusión, será necesaria la aplicación de modelos regionales de resolución espacial más fina y realizar experimentos de sensibilidad con diferentes parametrizaciones físicas para lograr mejorar el re...

Regional climate models (RCMs) are widely used to assess future impacts associated with climate change at regional and local scales. RCMs must represent relevant climate variables in the present-day climate to be considered fit-for-purpose for impact assessment. This condition is particularly difficult to meet over complex regions such as the Andes-Amazon transition region, where the Andean topography and abundance of tropical rainfall regimes remain a challenge for numerical climate models. In this study, we evaluate the ability of 30 regional climate simulations (6 RCMs driven by 10 global climate models) to reproduce historical (1981–2005) rainfall climatology and temporal variability over the Andes-Amazon transition region. We assess spatio-temporal features such as spatial distribution of rainfall, focusing on the orographic effects over the Andes-Amazon “rainfall hotspots” re...

Los Modelos Climáticos Regionales (RCMs, por sus siglas en inglés) son ampliamente utilizados para evaluar los impactos futuros asociados al cambio climático a escalas locales y regionales; sin embargo, su capacidad para ser utilizados en estudios de impacto del cambio climático debe ser evaluada a partir de la representación de variables relevantes del clima, como la precipitación. En este estudio se evaluó la capacidad de 30 simulaciones regionales del clima (6 RCMs forzados por 10 Modelos Climáticos Globales) para reproducir las climatologías históricas (1981-2005) de la precipitación sobre la región de transición Andes-Amazonía, una zona de alta complejidad topográfica. Nos enfocamos en la distribución espacial de la precipitación, la precipitación orográfica sobre las áreas de hotspots de precipitación andino-amazónicas, y la variabilidad estacional. Encontramo...

El sur de la Amazonía muestra un alargamiento de la estación seca debido al retraso en el inicio del sistema monzónico sudamericano (SAMS, por sus siglas en inglés). Mediante el reconocimiento de patrones de circulación atmosférica (CPs), se evaluaron los cambios proyectados del periodo histórico (1970-2000) al futuro (2040-2070), según seis modelos de circulación general (GCM, por sus siglas en inglés) de la sexta fase del Proyecto de Intercomparación de Modelos Acoplados (CMIP6). Las proyecciones indican cambios significativos en los CPs asociados a la estación seca, a razón de un inicio tardío y una desaparición temprana del SAMS. La frecuencia de días secos en la Amazonía aumentaría en promedio un 19 %, y se prevé un incremento en la frecuencia de CPs secos al inicio y fin de las temporadas de transición.

The 2022-23 hydrological year in the Lake Titicaca, Desaguadero River, and Lake Poopó hydrological system (TDPS) over the South American Altiplano constituted a historically dry period. This drought was particularly severe during the pre-wet season (October–December), when the TDPS and the adjacent Andean-Amazon region experienced as much as 60% reductions in rainfall. Consequently, Titicaca Lake water levels decreased by 0.05 m from December to January, which is part of the rising lake level period of normal conditions. Such conditions have not been seen since the El Niño-related drought of 1982-83. Using a set of hydroclimatic, Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and atmospheric reanalysis datasets, we find that this new historical drought was associated with enhanced southerly moisture flux anomalies, reducing the inflow of moisture-laden winds from the Amazon basin to the TDPS. Such an...

Este trabajo ofrece un panorama inicial de las características climáticas y los impactos hidrológicos afines durante las recientes sequías extremas (1995, 1998, 2005 y 2010) en el río Amazonas peruano. Para ello se empleó una base de datos in situ de caudales y precipitaciones. Las sequías generalmente se asocian a anomalías positivas de temperatura superficial del mar (TSM) en el Atlántico tropical norte, vientos alisios y transporte de vapor de agua débiles hacia el oeste de la cuenca amazónica, que acompañados de un aumento en la subsidencia sobre la parte central y sur de la cuenca, explican la falta de lluvias y los muy bajos valores de caudales. Sin embargo, en 1998 hacia el final del evento El Niño de 1997/1998 la sequía estuvo más relacionada con una divergencia anómala de vapor de agua en el oeste de la amazonia, que es característica de un evento cálido en el ...

In this work we document and analyze the hydrological annual cycles characterized by a rapid transition between low and high flows in the Amazonas River (Peruvian Amazon) and we show how these events, which may impact vulnerable riverside residents, are related to regional climate variability. Our analysis is based on comprehensive discharge, rainfall and average suspended sediment data sets. Particular attention is paid to the 2010–11 hydrological year, when an unprecedented abrupt transition from the extreme September 2010 drought (8300 m³ s⁻¹) to one of the four highest discharges in April 2011 (49 500 m³ s⁻¹) was recorded at Tamshiyacu (Amazonas River). This unusual transition is also observed in average suspended sediments. Years with a rapid increase in discharge are characterized by negative sea surface temperature anomalies in the central equatorial Pacific during aus...

In this work we document and analyze the hydrological annual cycles characterized by a rapid transition between low and high flows in the Amazonas River (Peruvian Amazon) and we show how these events, which may impact vulnerable riverside residents, are related to regional climate variability. Our analysis is based on comprehensive discharge, rainfall and average suspended sediment data sets. Particular attention is paid to the 2010–11 hydrological year, when an unprecedented abrupt transition from the extreme September 2010 drought (8300 m3s−1) to one of the four highest discharges in April 2011 (49 500 m3s−1) was recorded at Tamshiyacu (Amazonas River). This unusual transition is also observed in average suspended sediments. Years with a rapid increase in discharge are characterized by negative sea surface temperature anomalies in the central equatorial Pacific during austral sum...