A catalog of moisture sources for continental climatic regions

Nieto, Raquel; Castillo, Rodrigo; Drumond, Anita

doi:10.1002/2013wr013901

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…However, when we look into the Western Cape region, some other studies have highlighted the contribution of the tropical southeast Atlantic to precipitation during summer and winter. 30,49,50 Additionally, in this study, we show that for southwestern South Africa, the South Atlantic is a key moisture source for ARs making landfall in South Africa during the winter months.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…The Indian Ocean has often been portrayed as the major moisture source for the region, with wet and dry summers regularly linked to sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in this oceanic domain . Although the Indian Ocean is viewed as a dominant regional moisture source for summer rainfall (the most important rainy season), evidence also supports the South Atlantic Ocean as another important moisture source for both summer and winter (the rainy season in the southwest of the country) . Not all moisture is sourced from the neighboring oceans, with the tropical areas of continental Africa also considered a source region for rainfall over southern Africa .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[21][22][23][24][25] Although the Indian Ocean is viewed as a dominant regional moisture source for summer rainfall (the most important rainy season), evidence also supports the South Atlantic Ocean as another important moisture source for both summer and winter (the rainy season in the southwest of the country). [26][27][28][29][30] Not all moisture is sourced from the neighboring oceans, with the tropical areas of continental Africa also considered a source region for rainfall over southern Africa. 31 However, a large amount of this understanding relates to the austral summer rainfall region, while the austral winter rainfall is poorly understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From Amazonia to southern Africa: atmospheric moisture transport through low‐level jets and atmospheric rivers

Ramos

Blamey

Algarra

et al. 2018

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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A Lagrangian analysis is applied to identify the main moisture source areas associated with atmospheric rivers (ARs) making landfall along the west coast of South Africa during the extended austral winter months from 1980 to 2014. The results show that areas that provide the anomalous uptake of moisture can be categorized into four regions: (1) the South Atlantic Ocean between 10°S and 30°S, (2) a clear local maximum in the eastern South Atlantic, (3) a continental source of anomalous uptake to the north of the Western Cape, and (4) over South America at a distance of more than 7000 km from the target region. It emerges that the South American moisture source can be linked to a particular phase of the South American low‐level jet, known as a no Chaco jet event (NCJE), which transports moisture to the western and central South Atlantic basin. Concisely, we provide strong evidence that the two margins of the South Atlantic Ocean appear connected by two meteorological structures, with the NCJE playing a key role of transporting moisture from South America to the western and central South Atlantic basin, feeding the AR that transports some of the moisture to the west coast of South Africa.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From Amazonia to southern Africa: atmospheric moisture transport through low‐level jets and atmospheric rivers

Ramos

Blamey

Algarra

et al. 2018

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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“…FLEXPART has been applied in the pursuit of similar goals in several regions of the world, including the Sahel [6], the Sahelian Sudan [38], the Orinoco River Basin [39], China [40], the Amazon River Basin [41], and several continental regions [42].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Niger River Basin Moisture Sources: A Lagrangian Analysis

2017

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Abstract:The Niger River basin (NRB) is located in the important climatic region of the African Sahel. In this study we use the Lagrangian tridimensional model FLEXPART v9.0 to identify and characterise the moisture sources for the NRB. This method allows the integration of the budget of evaporation minus precipitation over 10-day backward trajectories, thereby identifying the origins of the air masses residing over the NRB. The analysis was performed for the 35-year period from 1980 to 2014, which allowed us to identify the main semi-annual climatological moisture sources of the NRB, for November-April (NDJFMA) (dry season) and May-October (MJJASO) (wet season), and to quantify the respective moisture uptakes. Throughout the year, the NRB main moisture sources are located on the tropical eastern North Atlantic Ocean near Africa, the tropical eastern South Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Guinea, in the regions surrounding the Sahel and in the Mediterranean Sea. The extents of these sources vary between dry and wet seasons. In NDJFMA two regions appear in the east of the basin, which then join up, forming a larger source to the northeast of the basin in MJJASO, when three other less important moisture sources can be seen in central-equatorial Africa, the tropical western Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. In NDJFMA the majority of the moisture uptake comes from the NRB itself but then, later in MJJASO, when the precipitation increases over the basin the greatest uptake of moisture occurs over the tropical eastern South Atlantic Ocean, northeast Africa and the NRB, which suggests that these are the effective sources of precipitation in the basin in overall terms. The seasonal moisture uptake quantification over the moisture sources of the NRB, reveals that largest fraction of moisture income to the basin from outside its boundaries. Despite providing moisture to the NRB the source located in the tropical eastern North Atlantic Ocean does not contribute that much to precipitation in the basin. A daily (ten-day) backward analysis shows the importance of the moisture uptake within the NRB and from near moisture sources during the first few (backward) days, while the Atlantic Ocean sources and the Mediterranean became more important during the last five (backward) days of the analysis.

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“…The identification of moisture sources can be performed through lagrangian analysis, where changes in the amount of moisture of an air parcel, due to evaporation or precipitation, are assessed along an air parcel trajectory from one point of interest to another, identifying those places where moisture is gained or lost [1]. The main tool that we used to analyze moisture sources is the method developed by Stohl and James [2], the Flexible Particle dispersion model (FLEXPART) is a Lagrangian transport and dispersion model suitable for the simulation of a large range of atmospheric transport processes, and has been a highly efficient to diagnose changes in specific humidity along several trajectories related to sink regions [3][4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moisture Sources Identification of Tropical Cyclones in the North Atlantic

Gimeno

Pazos

2016

Proceedings of the 1st International Electronic Conference on Atmospheric Sciences

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In this study, we identified the moisture sources of 110 tropical cyclones with cyclogenesis within the area comprised between 15-45°W and 8-20°N. We used the Lagrangian FLEXPART model to perform the analysis that computes the changes in the specific humidity of ten days before the day of cyclogenesis of each tropical cyclone and its contribution to the moisture budget of the region of interest. Then we calculated the anomaly values of the results to identify the main regions of moisture sources: The African coasts in the North Atlantic, the continental region over western Africa and the area along the South Atlantic from the Equator to the Southern Africa coast.

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A catalog of moisture sources for continental climatic regions

Cited by 26 publications

References 30 publications

From Amazonia to southern Africa: atmospheric moisture transport through low‐level jets and atmospheric rivers

From Amazonia to southern Africa: atmospheric moisture transport through low‐level jets and atmospheric rivers

The Niger River Basin Moisture Sources: A Lagrangian Analysis

Moisture Sources Identification of Tropical Cyclones in the North Atlantic

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