Diurnal patterns of rainfall in a tropical Andean valley of southern Ecuador as seen by a vertically pointing K-band Doppler radar

摘要

The diurnal precipitation dynamics in an east-west-oriented valley that connects the Amazon lowlands and the inter-Andean basin of southern Ecuador (Rio San Francisco valley) is investigated by means of a K-band rain-radar profiler (located at the ECSF research station, latitude: 3 degrees 58'S, longitude: 79 degrees 4'W) and additional remotely sensed data. A predawn/dawn (5:30-6:30 LST) maximum of rainfall is found and a secondary peak is observed after noon (14:30-15:30 LST). Although the frequency distribution of rain rates reveals that a great portion of rainfall is of stratiform character, vertical profiles of rain rate and droplet concentration points to the important contribution of embedded convection and/or showers produced by local heating for the overall amount of rainfall. Specific differences in stratification and process dynamics could be found for both peak times. The pre-dawn maximum can be related to mesoscale instabilities over the Peruvian Amazon close to the south Ecuadorian border. Extended cold air drainage flow from the Andes and low-level confluence due to the concavity of the Andean chain in this area leads to convective instability in the nocturnal Amazonian boundary layer, which is extended to the study area by the predominant easterlies in the mid-troposphere. Rain clouds with at least embedded shallow convection can overflow the bordering ridges of the San Francisco valley providing rains of higher intensity at the ECSF research station. On the contrary, the afternoon convective precipitation can be caused by locally induced thermal convection at the bordering slopes (up-slope breeze system) where the ECSF station profits from precipitation off the edge of these local cells due to the narrow valley. Copyright (C) 2005 Royal Meteorological Society.