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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Clim.
Sec. Predictions and Projections
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fclim.2024.1370097
This article is part of the Research Topic Climate of South America: Natural Variability, Large Scale Connections and Tendencies of Change View all articles

Heterogeneity of the diurnal cycle of precipitation in the Amazon Basin

Provisionally accepted
Ronald G. Ramírez Nina Ronald G. Ramírez Nina *Maria A. da Silva Dias Maria A. da Silva Dias *
  • Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Departamento de Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo,, São Paulo, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The diurnal cycle of precipitation in the Amazon Basin (AB) is not homogeneous, varying in its intensity, time of occurrence of precipitation peaks and in the shape of its diurnal distribution. This study presents a seasonal characterization of the mean diurnal cycle of precipitation in the AB from IMERG Final Run (∆x=0.1º and ∆t=30 minutes) database from 2001 to 2020. Diurnal and semidiurnal oscillations were studied by harmonics analysis, i.e., using the first and second harmonics, respectively. Harmonic metrics of normalized amplitude (A N ), phase and mean hourly precipitation rate were analyzed. The A N showed pixels within the AB with bimodal/uniform or unimodal distribution associated with the occurrence of two peaks (or none) or a single peak during the day. The phase of the first harmonic shows the time of occurrence of the precipitation rates peaks, as well as the displacement of the precipitation systems. The regionalization of the diurnal cycle was performed using the K-Means technique, showing that AB presents six clusters along its domain based mainly on the phase of the first harmonic. The spatial configuration of clusters showed seasonal variation, being modulated by the South American Monsoon System and the large-scale mechanisms responsible for triggering convection. However, their intensity and the timing of precipitation peaks are modulated by local factors.

    Keywords: heterogeneity, diurnal cycle, precipitation, Amazon basin, IMERG, K-means

    Received: 13 Jan 2024; Accepted: 20 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ramírez Nina and da Silva Dias. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ronald G. Ramírez Nina, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Departamento de Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo,, São Paulo, Brazil
    Maria A. da Silva Dias, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Departamento de Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo,, São Paulo, Brazil

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