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Moisture sources to the 2010–2012 anomalous wet season in northern South America

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Abstract

During 2010–2012, northern South America experienced one of the strongest wet seasons during the recent decades, with socio-economic implications of wide proportions. This period was characterized by two stronger-than-average La Niña events, one occurred in 2010–2011 and another less intense event in 2011–2012. This study focused on identifying the main moisture sources, besides the eastern Pacific, for the anomalous wet season occurred in this region during 2010–2012, and their association with the La Niña events observed in the equatorial Pacific. The results discussed here suggest that the main moisture sources to this anomalous wet season were the Pacific Ocean (via the westerly flow of the Choco jet) and the Caribbean Sea (via the weakening of the Caribbean low-level jet and the development of southward anomalies toward northern South America). Such changes appear to be associated not only to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-driven sea surface temperature anomalies in the eastern Pacific, Caribbean Sea, and north Atlantic, but also to ENSO-independent variability in the Atlantic Ocean. The latter is related to an enhanced Atlantic Meridional Mode.

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Acknowledgments

The main idea for this work was conceived during “the 2013 Pan American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI)—Atmospheric Processes of Latin America and the Caribbean: Observations, Analysis, and Impacts”, held in Cartagena, Colombia, in May 2013. We thank the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) Program for the scholarships granted to the three authors, which allowed their assistance to this course. We specially thank John Braun, Shuyi Chen, Ana María Durán-Quesada, Olga Mayol-Bracero, Carolina Vera, Tom Yoksas, and all the lectures in this course. The authors also sincerely thank Francina Domínguez, from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Arizona, who gently allow us to implement the DRM in this study. We also thank Empresas Públicas de Medellín and IDEAM for providing the rain gauge data used in this study. We acknowledge the insightful suggestions from two anonymous reviewers and the editor, which improved this manuscript. Finally, we acknowledge Julio Cañón for his help acquiring rain gauge data. Paola Arias and Sara Vieira were funded by Colciencias Program #5509-543-31966 and the program “Estrategia de Sostenibilidad 2014-2015” at Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. J. Alejandro Martinez was funded by NSF award 1045260.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Ingeniería y Gestión Ambiental (GIGA), Escuela Ambiental, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 # 53-108, Of. 20-441, Medellín, Colombia

    Paola A. Arias & Sara C. Vieira

  2. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    J. Alejandro Martínez

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  1. Paola A. Arias
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Correspondence to Paola A. Arias.

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Arias, P.A., Martínez, J.A. & Vieira, S.C. Moisture sources to the 2010–2012 anomalous wet season in northern South America. Clim Dyn 45, 2861–2884 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2511-7

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