Laboratory for
Climatology and Remote Sensing

Abstract:

In remote areas with steep topography, such as the Tropical Andes, reliable precipitation data with a high temporal resolution are scarce. Therefore, studies focusing on the diurnal properties of precipitation are hampered. In this paper, we investigated two years of data from Micro-Rain Radars (MRR) in Cuenca, Ecuador, and Huaraz, Peru, from February 2017 to January 2019. This data allowed for a detailed study on the temporal precipitation characteristics, such as event occurrences and durations at these two locations. Our results showed that the majority of precipitation events had durations of less than 3 h. In Huaraz, precipitation has a distinct annual and diurnal cycle where precipitation in the rainy season occurred predominantly in the afternoon. These annual and diurnal cycles were less pronounced at the site in Cuenca, especially due to increased nocturnal precipitation events compared to Huaraz. Furthermore, we used a fuzzy logic classification of fall velocities and rainfall intensities to distinguish different precipitation types. This classification showed that nightly precipitation at both locations was predominantly stratiform, whereas (thermally induced) convection occurred almost exclusively during the daytime hours

Abstract:

The diurnal precipitation dynamics in an east-west-oriented valley that connects the Amazon lowlands and the inter-Andean basin of southern Ecuador (Rio San Francisco valley) is investigated by means of a K-band rain-radar profiler (located at the ECSF research station, latitude: 3° 58'S, longitude: 79° 4?W) and additional remotely sensed data. A pre-dawn/dawn (5:30–6:30 LST) maximum of rainfall is found and a secondary peak is observed after noon (14:30–15:30 LST). Although the frequency distribution of rain rates reveals that a great portion of rainfall is of stratiform character, vertical profiles of rain rate and droplet concentration points to the important contribution of embedded convection and/or showers produced by local heating for the overall amount of rainfall. Specific differences in stratification and process dynamics could be found for both peak times. The pre-dawn maximum can be related to mesoscale instabilities over the Peruvian Amazon close to the south Ecuadorian border. Extended cold air drainage flow from the Andes and low-level confluence due to the concavity of the Andean chain in this area leads to convective instability in the nocturnal Amazonian boundary layer, which is extended to the study area by the predominant easterlies in the mid-troposphere. Rain clouds with at least embedded shallow convection can overflow the bordering ridges of the San Francisco valley providing rains of higher intensity at the ECSF research station. On the contrary, the afternoon convective precipitation can be caused by locally induced thermal convection at the bordering slopes (up-slope breeze system) where the ECSF station profits from precipitation off the edge of these local cells due to the narrow valley.