Low-frequency oscillations in climatic and hydrological variables in southern South America’s tropical-subtropical regions

Summary

The existence of low-frequency variability in climatic-hydrological-oceanic variables may be useful for long-term forecasting and climate modelling. By using long time series this paper attempts to identify large-scale quasi-cycles in the precipitation regimes of Northern Argentina, moisture advection from the Atlantic Ocean and the streamflow of the Paraná River. This work also shows the presence of coherent waves with long periodicity between the three series. As the three variables are estimated over different time intervals, the presence of waves in each variable is studied separately, to show they respond to the same process. The three variables show significant interdecadal variability at low frequency (22–26 years), which might be related to the ENSO cycle modulation and to the intensification or weakening of the South American Low Level Jet (SALLJ) and South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ).