Aerial Rivers and Lakes: Looking at Large-Scale Moisture Transport and Its Relation to Amazonia and to Subtropical Rainfall in South America

Arraut, Joséfina Moraes; Nobre, Carlos A.; Barbosa, H. M.; Obregón, Guillermo O.; Marengo, José A.

doi:10.1175/2011jcli4189.1

Cited by 145 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(22 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

115

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Arraut and Satyamurty, 2009;Arraut et al, 2012;Satyamurty et al, 2013a, and references therein). According to these authors, the moisture flux from the equatorial Atlantic associated with the trade winds is the main remote moisture source for the Amazon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The role of the Amazon Basin moisture in the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle: a Lagrangian analysis

Drumond

Marengo

Ambrizzi

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. We used a Lagrangian model (FLEXPART) together with the 1979-2012 ERA-Interim reanalysis data to investigate the role of the moisture in the Amazon Basin in the regional hydrological budget over the course of the year. FLEXPART computes budgets of evaporation minus precipitation by calculating changes in the specific humidity along forward and backward trajectories. The tropical Atlantic is the most important remote moisture source for the Amazon Basin. The tropical North Atlantic (NA) mainly contributed during the austral summer, while the contribution of the tropical South Atlantic (SA) prevailed for the remainder of the year. At the same time, the moisture contribution from the Amazon Basin itself is mainly for moisture supplying the southeastern South America. The 33-year temporal domain allowed the investigation of some aspects of the interannual variability of the moisture transport over the basin, such as the role of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Atlantic Meridional Mode (AMM) on the hydrological budget. During the peak of the Amazonian rainy season (from February to May, FMAM) the AMM is associated more with the interannual variations in the contribution from the tropical Atlantic sources, while the transport from the basin towards the subtropics responds more to the ENSO variability. The moisture contribution prevailed from the SA (NA) region in the years dominated by El Niño/positive AMM (La Niña/negative AMM) conditions. The transport from the Amazon towards the subtropics increased (reduced) during El Niño (La Niña) years.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The role of the Amazon Basin moisture in the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle: a Lagrangian analysis

Drumond

Marengo

Ambrizzi

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Amazonian ecosystem can be considered a source of water for other regions, as a significant amount of water vapor that evapotranspirates in Amazonia is transported to Center-west, Southeast and Southern regions of Brazil by low-level jets (Zemp, 2014;Arraut et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of biological and meteorological controls of evapotranspiration in pristine forests and a pasture site in Amazonia

Paulino¹,

Randow²,

Randow³

2017

Rev. ambiente água

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This work studied the behavior and seasonality of evapotranspiration influenced by biotic and abiotic factors through analysis of diurnal variation of aerodynamic resistance (ra), stomatal resistance (rs) and decoupling factor (Ω). This index was proposed by Jarvis and McNaughton (1986) as an indicative of the control of these resistances on the evapotranspiration of vegetation. Selection of representative data from wet and dry seasons from a primary forest in Central Amazonia and a primary forest and a pasture sites in Southwestern Amazonia had shown that: (i) ra is about 20 s.m-1 in both forests in both seasons, and ranges from 70 to 100 s.m-1 in the pasture site; (ii) rs varies both throughout the day and seasonally, with medians increasing from 40 in the morning, to 150 s.m-1 in late afternoon, in the wet season in the forests and from 50 to 160 s.m-1 in the pasture. These values increase in the dry season, with the forests rs ranging from 50 up to 500 s.m-1 and pasture rs starting from 140 s.m‑1 and reaching up to more than 1800 s.m-1 in the dry afternoons; (iii) Ω ranges from 0.5 to 0.8 during the wet season, and reduces to values below 0.5 in the afternoons during the dry season, indicating that, although a strong influence of net radiation in the evaporative loss is present, to a large extent the evapotranspiration fluxes are coupled to the biotic control of stomatal closure in the vegetation, especially in the pasture and during dry periods.

show abstract

“…This event, caused by a global atmospheric scale phenomenon, originate a very strong system of high pressure in the central part of Brazil acting as an atmospheric blockade, thus preventing formation of rain clouds and the passage of frontal systems (COELHO, 2015). Observing the accumulated annual rainfall of the entire affected area for the Summer 2013/14, we can observe that it was a very anomalous period in relation to both the climatological normal (1.450 mm) and the recorded minimum (1,169 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

<span>Analysis of Amazon Humidity Transport to South East of Brazil During the Southern Summer (DJF)</span>

Lemes¹,

Oliveira²,

Fisch

et al. 2017

Proceedings of First International Electronic Conference on the Hydrological Cycle

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The moisture transport from the Amazon to the southern part of Brazil is an important atmospheric mechanism that contributes to the high precipitation rates during the austral summer (DJF) in this region, or more specifically, in the Sao Paulo state. This transport originates from the entrance of moisture from the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean, moving inland of the Amazon, where it's quantity was increased by the rain forest evapotranspiration. After this supply, the moisture flow is diverted to higher latitudes (South and Southeast parts from Brazil) due to the Andes mountain range. The integrated vertical moisture transport (from the surface up to 500hPa) was studied for contrasting years (during El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events and for neutral years). The results show an intensification of this flow for El Niño events. In neutral years, there approximately 45.1 kg / kg enter the Amazon territory and around 27.5 kg / kg of this moisture exits, and while the region of São Paulo receives an average amount of 8.9 kg / kg and looses 7kg / kg. When a ENSO phenomenon occurs, the flow pattern increases significantly in the two regions: the input (54.8 kg / kg) and the outflow (47.4 kg / kg) in Amazon are larger, while São Paulo receive 42, 2 kg / kg and looses 11.8 kg / kg of all moisture received. In years of ENSO, there is an intensification of the jet stream in the central part of Brazil, blocking the passage of frontal systems.

show abstract

Aerial Rivers and Lakes: Looking at Large-Scale Moisture Transport and Its Relation to Amazonia and to Subtropical Rainfall in South America

Cited by 145 publications

References 23 publications

The role of the Amazon Basin moisture in the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle: a Lagrangian analysis

The role of the Amazon Basin moisture in the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle: a Lagrangian analysis

Analysis of biological and meteorological controls of evapotranspiration in pristine forests and a pasture site in Amazonia

<span>Analysis of Amazon Humidity Transport to South East of Brazil During the Southern Summer (DJF)</span>

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About