On the forecast of the onset and end of the convective season in the Amazon |
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| Authors: | M González V Barros |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, AR;(2) Conseso Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas, Argentina, AR |
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| Abstract: | Summary ?Some features of the climate system that can be considered predictors of the onset and end of the convective season over
the Amazon were identified using one-month lag correlations and field composites. The fields analyzed were sea surface temperature
(SST), outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR), vertical velocity and upper tropospheric winds.
Warm (cold) anomalies in the SST in the tropical North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea tend to be associated with delayed (early)
onsets. Likewise, there is a tendency towards a delayed (early) end of the convective season with cold (warm) anomalies in
these ocean regions. In addition, the SST in the cold tongue region of the equatorial Pacific is negatively, though weakly
correlated with the onset date. The signal of this SST is more evident in the case of the end date, which is earlier with
respect to its mean date in most of El Ni?o cases.
The convective activity intensity itself conditions the onset and the end of the convective season, as it is evidenced by
the behavior of the OLR and the vertical velocity fields. The more (less) intense the convective activity over South America
during the preceding month, the earlier the onset and the later the end of the convective season on the Amazon region.
The prediction of the onset and end dates of the convective season in the Amazon region was explored using a simple multiple
regression technique based on the variables that have shown precursor signals with respect to these dates. The correlation
coefficient between the predicted and the observed onset date is 0.81, and in the case of the end date, it is 0.76. The skill
to predict early, delayed and normal categories was high, since in more than two thirds of the cases the category was successfully
predicted, and there were no predictions of categories opposed to those observed.
Received July 23, 2001; revised February 22, 2002; accepted April 26, 2002 |
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