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Impacts of El Niño and La Niña on interannual snow accumulation in the Andes: Results from a high‐resolution 31 year reanalysis
Author(s) -
Cortés Gonzalo,
Margulis Steven
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl073826
Subject(s) - snow , climatology , water equivalent , extratropical cyclone , geology , high resolution , snow line , environmental science , snow cover , remote sensing , geomorphology
We present new insights on extratropical Andean snow climatology (27°S to 37°S) based on the results from a 31 year high‐resolution reanalysis. The snow water equivalent (SWE) estimates were generated by integrating observed snow depletion data from Landsat together with a snow model forced by the Modern‐era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications. The spatial resolution (180 m), geographic extent (175,000 km 2 ), and temporal span (1984–2015) constitute an unprecedented data set for the region. SWE reaches annual peak volumes between 13 and 66 km 3 , with a climatological average of 27.7 km 3 . A positive correlation between SWE and the Oceanic Niño Index ( R 2 = 0.35) exists for the region, with a strengthening of the signal from north to south, peaking at 34°S. Although the correlation between El Niño and positive SWE anomalies is significant, La Niña was not found to drive negative anomalies beyond what is observed during non‐La Niña years.