500 hPa Vorticity Analyses over Argentina: Their Climatologyand Capacity to Distinguish Synoptic-Scale Precipitation

Summary

The Southern South America climatological 500 hPa relative vorticity mean state was examined using regional objective analyses of 500 hPa geopotential heights provided by the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional of Argentina. The dataset, covering the period June 1983 to July 1987, was stratified into two samples: the cold and warm seasons. Mean cyclonic vorticity south of 40° S results in a climatological trough over Patagonia with a northwest-southeast tilt. North of this latitude, mean anticyclonic circulation dominates with the exception of a centre of cyclonic vorticity over the Río de la Plata (35° S, 56° W). Seasonal changes appear to be small. Relative vorticity frequency distributions were also analysed.

The association between precipitation and synoptic-scale features of the mid-troposphere circulation was investigated through vorticity fields. A particular distribution of vorticity anomalies associated with daily precipitation in Buenos Aires is revealed by biserial correlation coefficient fields. In winter, the strongest relationships are found between 35° S and 40° S over the Andes Mountains (minimum significant correlation coefficients indicating a cyclonic vorticity anomaly), and in the south of Brazil and east of Buenos Aires over the Atlantic Ocean down to a latitude of 40° S (maximum correlation coefficients related to anomalously anticyclonic circulation). This shows the preferential position of troughs and ridges that produce precipitation in Buenos Aires on the time scale of a day. In summer, centres of anomalously cyclonic and anticyclonic vorticity associated with precipitation shift slightly southward. For moderate or intense precipitation in Buenos Aires, advection of warm and wet air southwards appears to be more important in winter, while in summer the strong anomalous vorticity gradient north of the negative centre over the Andes Cordillera favours rainfall in Buenos Aires.