Title
Multiscale assessment of spatial precipitation variability over complex mountain terrain using a high-resolution spatiotemporal wavelet reconstruction method
Date Issued
27 October 2016
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Vuille M.
Hardy D.R.
Posadas A.
Quiroz R.
University at Albany
Publisher(s)
Wiley-Blackwell
Abstract
Studying precipitation variability in the Peruvian Andes is a challenge given the high topographic variability and the scarcity of weather stations. Yet previous research has shown that a near-linear relationship exists between precipitation and vegetation in the semiarid central Andes. We exploit this relationship by developing a new, spatially highly resolved spatiotemporal precipitation reconstruction method, using daily precipitation time series from in situ weather stations, and dekadal (10 calendar days) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) fields. The two data sets are combined through a wavelet decomposition method. A 4° × 4° region around Quelccaya ice cap (QIC), the world’s largest tropical ice cap located in the central Peruvian Andes, was selected as study area, due to its importance for climatic, glaciologic, and paleoclimatic research. The reconstructed end product, a ~1 km2 gridded precipitation data set at dekadal temporal resolution, was validated against independent rain gauge data and compared with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42 version 7 product. This validation showed a better overall performance of our own reconstruction than the TRMM data. Additionally, a comparison of our precipitation product with snowfall measurements at the QIC summit (5670 m) shows a regionally coherent signal at the dekadal scale, suggesting that the precipitation falling at QIC is driven by regional- rather than local-scale convective activity. We anticipate that this methodology and the type of data generated in this study will be useful for hydrological and glaciological studies, as well as for validation of high-resolution downscaling products in mountain regions.
Start page
12,198
End page
12,216
Volume
121
Issue
20
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geoquímica, Geofísica Ingeniería aeroespacial
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84995561885
Source
Journal of Geophysical Research
ISSN of the container
01480227
Sponsor(s)
We are grateful for the comments from three reviewers (Bodo Bookhagen and two anonymous) who helped to significantly improve the quality of the manuscript. This study was supported by the U.S. Department of State as part of the ACCION project (award S-LMAQM-11-GR-086), by the National Science Foundation programs P2C2 (award AGS-1303828) and Paleoclimate (9909201 and 0402557), and by the NOAA Global Climate Observing System. Coauthors of CIP acknowledge the contribution of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Data generated as part of this study are available from the authors upon request. The reconstruction algorithms are available in Matlab format at http://www.atmos.albany.edu/student/yarleque/.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus