Diurnal Beating of the Amazonian Hydroclimate

In this work we use the Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model with the added capability of water vapor tracers to track the moisture that originates as evapotranspiration from the Amazonian basin. The volumetric region (purple-green-white) is the water vapor of Amazonian origin. The white path-lines are the total water vapor flux, while the green lines are the vapor flux of Amazonian moisture. We see that water vapor originating from Amazonian ET ebbs and flows with a characteristic diurnal timescale. The timescale is a result of the diurnal cycle of ET, convective precipitation and advection by the winds. These processes come together to form a “beating” pattern that characterizes atmospheric moisture of the Amazon forest.

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Visualization: David Bock, NCSA, XSEDE
Research PI: Francina Dominguez, University of Illinois
Simulation: Zhao Yang, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Data Analysis: Jorge Eiras Barca, Universidade de Vigo, Ourense, Spain