Urgilés, G.; Celleri, R.; Bendix, J. & Orellana-Alvear, J. (2024): <b>Identification of spatio-temporal patterns in extreme rainfall events in the Tropical Andes: A clustering analysis approach</b>. <i>Meteorological Applications</i> <b>31</b>(5), e70005.
Resource Description
Title:
Identification of spatio-temporal patterns in extreme rainfall events in the Tropical Andes: A clustering analysis approach
FOR816dw ID:
2039
Publication Date:
2024-10-12
License and Usage Rights:
Resource Owner(s):
Individual:
Gabriela Urgilés
Contact:
email:
webmaster <at> tropicalmountainforest.org
Individual:
Rolando Celleri
Contact:
email:
rcelleri <at> gmail.com
Dirección de Investigación
Cuenca
Ecuador
Individual:
Jörg Bendix
Contact:
email:
bendix <at> staff.uni-marburg.de
Faculty of Geography
Deutschhausstraße 10
Philipps University of Marburg
Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing
35032 Marburg
Germany
Individual:
Johanna Orellana-Alvear
Contact:
email:
webmaster <at> tropicalmountainforest.org
Abstract:
High spatio-temporal variability is a characteristic of extreme rainfall. In<br/>
mountainous regions like the Tropical Andes, where intricate orography and<br/>
mesoscale atmospheric dynamics greatly impact rainfall systems, this particularly<br/>
holds for mountain areas like the Tropical Andes. Thus, the absence of<br/>
operational rainfall monitoring networks with high spatio-temporal resolution<br/>
has imposed difficulties for a proper analysis of extreme rainfall events in the<br/>
Ecuadorian Andes. Nowhere, we present our improved knowledge on rainfall<br/>
extremes based on newly available rainfall radar data of this region. In our<br/>
study we employ a clustering approach to identify types of extreme rainfall<br/>
events and analyze their spatio-temporal characteristics. Based on 3 years of<br/>
data obtained from an X-band scanning weather radar data, the study was conducted<br/>
in the southern Ecuadorian Tropical Andes at 4450 m a.s.l. By applying<br/>
a rainfall threshold, 67 extreme rainfall events were selected. The rainfall characteristics<br/>
of each extreme rainfall event, such as the amount of rain, its duration,<br/>
its hour, and month of occurrence were determined and used as input<br/>
variables of a k-means clustering analysis to group the events into different<br/>
classes. The result revealed three main classes of extreme rainfall events. The<br/>
first class is characterized by highest rain intensity and lowest duration. The<br/>
second class is characterized by its month of occurrence, during the first<br/>
5 months of the year. The third class showed lowest rain intensity and highest<br/>
duration mainly occurred at higher elevations. The typology of events<br/>
advances our understanding of the spatio-temporal characteristics of extreme<br/>
rainfall in the Tropical Andes.
email:
bendix <at> staff.uni-marburg.de
Faculty of Geography
Deutschhausstraße 10
Philipps University of Marburg
Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing
35032 Marburg
Germany
