Determining Hydroclimatic Extreme Events Over the South-central Andes

Maryam Ramezani Ziarani

Fakultät VI - Planen Bauen Umwelt, Technischen Universität Berlin
Institut für Erd- und Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Potsdam
GFZ Potsdam

The south-central Andes in NW Argentina are characterized by a strong rainfall asymmetry. In the east-west direction exists one of the steepest rainfall gradients on Earth, resulting from the large topographic differences in this region. In addition, in the north-south direction the rainfall intensity varies as the climatic regime shifts from the tropical central Andes to the subtropical south-central Andes. This study focuses on the investigation of the hydroclimatic extreme events over the south-central Andes. In this study, we use TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) data, GPS data, meteorological re-analysis, such as ERA-Interim reanalysis of the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) and the high resolution regional climate model (COSMO-CLM) data (http://www.clm-community.eu/ [2]) to obtain a detailed view of the atmospheric processes related to hydro-meteorological extreme events over the south-central Andes. Here, we divide the erea in three different study regions based on elevation: The high-elevation Altiplano-Puna plateau, an intermediate area characterized by intramontane basins, and the foreland area to analyze the correlations between climatic variables and extreme rainfall events in all three domains.