Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires
We describe a climate mode synchronizing forest carbon losses from North and South America by analyzing time series of tropical North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs), landfall hurricanes and tropical storms, and Amazon fires during 1995-2013. Years with anomalously high tropical North Atlan...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
eScholarship, University of California
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://escholarship.org/uc/item/379931f1 |
id |
ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt379931f1 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt379931f1 2023-05-15T17:26:46+02:00 Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires Chen, Y Randerson, JT Morton, DC 6462 - 6470 2015-08-16 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/379931f1 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt379931f1 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/379931f1 CC-BY CC-BY Geophysical Research Letters, vol 42, iss 15 Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences article 2015 ftcdlib 2021-04-16T07:10:50Z We describe a climate mode synchronizing forest carbon losses from North and South America by analyzing time series of tropical North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs), landfall hurricanes and tropical storms, and Amazon fires during 1995-2013. Years with anomalously high tropical North Atlantic SSTs during March-June were often followed by a more active hurricane season and a larger number of satellite-detected fires in the southern Amazon during June-November. The relationship between North Atlantic tropical cyclones and southern Amazon fires (r = 0.61, p < 0.003) was stronger than links between SSTs and either cyclones or fires alone, suggesting that fires and tropical cyclones were directly coupled to the same underlying atmospheric dynamics governing tropical moisture redistribution. These relationships help explain why seasonal outlook forecasts for hurricanes and Amazon fires both failed in 2013 and may enable the design of improved early warning systems for drought and fire in Amazon forests. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University of California: eScholarship |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Chen, Y Randerson, JT Morton, DC Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires |
topic_facet |
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
description |
We describe a climate mode synchronizing forest carbon losses from North and South America by analyzing time series of tropical North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs), landfall hurricanes and tropical storms, and Amazon fires during 1995-2013. Years with anomalously high tropical North Atlantic SSTs during March-June were often followed by a more active hurricane season and a larger number of satellite-detected fires in the southern Amazon during June-November. The relationship between North Atlantic tropical cyclones and southern Amazon fires (r = 0.61, p < 0.003) was stronger than links between SSTs and either cyclones or fires alone, suggesting that fires and tropical cyclones were directly coupled to the same underlying atmospheric dynamics governing tropical moisture redistribution. These relationships help explain why seasonal outlook forecasts for hurricanes and Amazon fires both failed in 2013 and may enable the design of improved early warning systems for drought and fire in Amazon forests. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Chen, Y Randerson, JT Morton, DC |
author_facet |
Chen, Y Randerson, JT Morton, DC |
author_sort |
Chen, Y |
title |
Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires |
title_short |
Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires |
title_full |
Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires |
title_fullStr |
Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires |
title_full_unstemmed |
Tropical North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires |
title_sort |
tropical north atlantic ocean-atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and amazon fires |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/379931f1 |
op_coverage |
6462 - 6470 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters, vol 42, iss 15 |
op_relation |
qt379931f1 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/379931f1 |
op_rights |
CC-BY |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766118560408535040 |