Juan Antonio Rivera

A Comparison of GLDAS Soil Moisture Anomalies against Standardized Precipitation Index and Multisatellite Estimations over South America

AbstractThis study aims to compare simulated soil moisture anomalies derived from different versions of the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), the standardized precipitation index (SPI), and a new multisatellite surface soil moisture product over southern South America. The main motivation is the need for assessing the reliability of GLDAS variables to be used in the characterization of soil state and its variability at the regional scale. The focus is on the southeastern part of South America (SESA), which is part of the La Plata basin, one of the largest basins of the world, where agriculture is the main source of income. The results show that GLDAS data capture soil moisture anomalies and their variability, taking into account regional and seasonal dependencies and showing correspondence with other proxies used to characterize soil states. Over large portions of the domain, and particularly over SESA, the correlation with the SPI is very high, with the second version of GLDAS, version 2 (GLD...

A regional water balance indicator inferred from satellite images of an Andean endorheic basin in central-western Argentina

ABSTRACT In the Central Andes of Argentina (30–37°S), snowmelt is the main source of freshwater, an essential natural resource for ~2.2 million people in the adjacent arid lowlands. In this region, Laguna Llancanelo collects the water inputs from the Malargüe endorheic basin. Previous studies concerning the annual and intra-annual variations of this lagoon and its relationship with regional climate are rare. We obtained a monthly record for the Laguna Llancanelo area (LLA, 1984–2013) using the modified normalized difference water index derived from Landsat images. Monthly LLA ranges between 35 km2 and 411 km2 and is significantly related to variations of the Río Malargüe, the main snow-fed tributary to the lagoon. There is no long-term relationship between LLA and local rainfall, but rapid increases in LLA result from heavy rainfall around the lagoon. Conversely, rapid reductions in LLA encompass periods with both reduced discharge from the Río Malargüe and low local rainfall. The LLA integrates moisture of both Pacific (snowfall in the upper Andes) and Atlantic (lowland rainfall) origins; therefore, we propose using LLA as an indicator of regional water balance.

Assessment of Seasonal Soil Moisture Forecasts over Southern South America with Emphasis on Dry and Wet Events

AbstractThe importance of forecasting extreme wet and dry conditions from weeks to months in advance relies on the need to prevent considerable socioeconomic losses, mainly in regions of large populations and where agriculture is a key value for the economies, such as southern South America (SSA). To improve the understanding of the performance and uncertainties of seasonal soil moisture and precipitation forecasts over SSA, this study aims to 1) perform a general assessment of the Climate Forecast System, version 2 (CFSv2), soil moisture and precipitation forecasts against observations and soil moisture simulations based on GLDAS, version 2.0; 2) evaluate the ability of CFSv2 to represent wet and dry events through the forecasted standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized soil moisture anomalies (SSMA); and 3) analyze the capability of a statistical methodology (merging observations and forecasts) in representing a severe drought event. Results show that both SPI and SSMA forecast skill are ...

Spatio-temporal assessment of streamflow droughts over Southern South America: 1961–2006

This paper performed a streamflow drought climatology considering some of the most important rivers of Southern South America, a region highly vulnerable to climatic variations, based on the analysis of monthly streamflow records. The standardized hydrological drought index (SHDI) was used in order to depict the main characteristics of droughts—number of drought events, mean duration, and mean severity—over the period 1961–2006. Firstly, the suitability of this index based on the two-parameter gamma distribution was evaluated, considering that the use of the SHDI has been limited over the region. The regional aspects of streamflow droughts were identified through a clear relationship between drought frequency and its duration, indicating different temporal variations in streamflow records over the study area. Spatial patterns exhibit heterogeneous features in terms of streamflow drought severity and can be associated to the geographical characteristics of the basins. Observed trends in the SSI are in line with the increases in precipitation totals over the second half of the twentieth century over much of the study area. Nevertheless, drought conditions are observed more often in the basins south of 40°S, in line with recent trends in large-scale climatic oscillations. The streamflow drought characteristics can provide critical values for different water-based activities, as also information to develop strategic plans that are needed for adequate water resource management considering the different climatic features over Southern South America.