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Intense drought and flooding events in the Rio Negro and relation with the tropical Pacific and Atlantic variability modes

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Abstract

The relationship of the hydrological variability of the Rio Negro in Manaus and the dominant large-scale climate variability patterns for the 1902–2007 period is investigated using the quantile method and composite analyses. Variations of the Rio Negro Level (RNL) during its 3-month high (May to July—MJJ) and low (October to December—OND) phases are examined separately. The El Niño (La Niña) related maximum warming (cooling) in the central tropical Pacific during its mature and decaying stages modulates the atmospheric circulation in the tropics and displaces the Walker circulation cell eastward (westward), so that its sinking (rising) branch occurs over western Amazon and causes negative (positive) precipitation anomalies in this region. These anomalous climate conditions occur before the Rio Negro high phase (MJJ) and contribute to reduce (increase) the RNL and lead to a very low (very high) event in the river. On the other hand, the SST variability modes in the tropical Atlantic mainly during the transition from wet to dry season modulate the precipitation variations over western Amazon in OND. The very high events are more frequent after the 1960’s decade and the very low events, before the 1930’s decade. Therefore, the occurrence of these events contains a multidecadal scale variability. The results also indicate that the variations in the rainfall in western Amazon occur up to 9 months in advance and modulate the RNL in Manaus. The results presented here might be useful for monitoring purposes of the RNL.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos of Brazil (FINEP/REMCLAM-UEA) for research support. The second author thanks the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) of Brazil for the grant scholarship. The first and fourth authors were partially supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) of Brazil. The third author thanks to the FAPEAM for the Senior Visitor Researcher grant. This work is part of the second author’s M.Sc. Dissertation. The authors thank the anonymous reviewer for his (her) useful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Escola Superior de Tecnologia, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Av. Darcy Vargas, 1200, Parque 10 de Novembro, Manaus, AM, 69065-020, Brazil

    Rita Valéria Andreoli & Rodrigo Augusto Ferreira de Souza

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Clima e Ambiente (INPA/UEA), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas na Amazônia, Av. André Araújo, 2936, Campus II, Aleixo, 69060-001, Manaus, AM, Brazil

    Simone Nazaré Rodriguez da Silva & Elisa Armijos

  3. Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Av. dos Astronautas, 1758, São José dos Campos, SP, 12227-010, Brazil

    Mary Toshie Kayano & Vinícius Buscioli Capistrano

  4. Instituto de Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Av. Bps, 1303, Itajubá, MG, 37500-903, Brazil

    Sâmia Regina Garcia

Authors
  1. Rita Valéria Andreoli
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  2. Simone Nazaré Rodriguez da Silva
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  3. Rodrigo Augusto Ferreira de Souza
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  4. Mary Toshie Kayano
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  5. Sâmia Regina Garcia
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  6. Vinícius Buscioli Capistrano
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  7. Elisa Armijos
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Correspondence to Rita Valéria Andreoli.

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Andreoli, R.V., da Silva, S.N.R., de Souza, R.A.F. et al. Intense drought and flooding events in the Rio Negro and relation with the tropical Pacific and Atlantic variability modes. Theor Appl Climatol 129, 551–576 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-1790-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-1790-1

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