@article{CastinoBookhagenDelaTorre2020,
  author    = {Castino, Fabiana and Bookhagen, Bodo and De la Torre, Alejandro},
  title     = {Atmospheric dynamics of extreme discharge events from 1979 to 2016 in the southern Central Andes},
  series = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system},
  volume    = {55},
  journal   = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system},
  number    = {11-12},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Berlin ; Heidelberg [u.a.]},
  issn      = {0930-7575},
  doi       = {10.1007/s00382-020-05458-1},
  pages     = {3485 -- 3505},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {During the South-American Monsoon season, deep convective systems occur at the eastern flank of the Central Andes leading to heavy rainfall and flooding. We investigate the large- and meso-scale atmospheric dynamics associated with extreme discharge events (> 99.9th percentile) observed in two major river catchments meridionally stretching from humid to semi-arid conditions in the southern Central Andes. Based on daily gauge time series and ERA-Interim reanalysis, we made the following three key observations: (1) for the period 1940-2016 daily discharge exhibits more pronounced variability in the southern, semi-arid than in the northern, humid catchments. This is due to a smaller ratio of discharge magnitudes between intermediate (0.2 year return period) and rare events (20 year return period) in the semi-arid compared to the humid areas; (2) The climatological composites of the 40 largest discharge events showed characteristic atmospheric features of cold surges based on 5-day time-lagged sequences of geopotential height at different levels in the troposphere; (3) A subjective classification revealed that 80\% of the 40 largest discharge events are mainly associated with the north-northeastward migration of frontal systems and 2/3 of these are cold fronts, i.e. cold surges. This work highlights the importance of cold surges and their related atmospheric processes for the generation of heavy rainfall events and floods in the southern Central Andes.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{CastinoBookhagenStrecker2017,
  author    = {Castino, Fabiana and Bookhagen, Bodo and Strecker, Manfred},
  title     = {Rainfall variability and trends of the past six decades (1950-2014) in the subtropical NW Argentine Andes},
  series = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system},
  volume    = {48},
  journal   = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {New York},
  issn      = {0930-7575},
  doi       = {10.1007/s00382-016-3127-2},
  pages     = {1049 -- 1067},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {The eastern flanks of the Central Andes are characterized by deep convection, exposing them to hydrometeorological extreme events, often resulting in floods and a variety of mass movements. We assessed the spatiotemporal pattern of rainfall trends and the changes in the magnitude and frequency of extreme events (ae<yen>95th percentile) along an E-W traverse across the southern Central Andes using rain-gauge and high-resolution gridded datasets (CPC-uni and TRMM 3B42 V7). We generated different climate indices and made three key observations: (1) an increase of the annual rainfall has occurred at the transition between low (< 0.5 km) and intermediate (0.5-3 km) elevations between 1950 and 2014. Also, rainfall increases during the wet season and, to a lesser degree, decreases during the dry season. Increasing trends in annual total amounts characterize the period 1979-2014 in the arid, high-elevation southern Andean Plateau, whereas trend reversals with decreasing annual total amounts were found at low elevations. (2) For all analyzed periods, we observed small or no changes in the median values of the rainfall-frequency distribution, but significant trends with intensification or attenuation in the 95th percentile. (3) In the southern Andean Plateau, extreme rainfall events exhibit trends towards increasing magnitude and, to a lesser degree, frequency during the wet season, at least since 1979. Our analysis revealed that low (< 0.5 km), intermediate (0.5-3 km), and high-elevation (> 3 km) areas respond differently to changing climate conditions, and the transition zone between low and intermediate elevations is characterized by the most significant changes.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{CastinoBookhagenStrecker2017,
  author    = {Castino, Fabiana and Bookhagen, Bodo and Strecker, Manfred},
  title     = {Oscillations and trends of river discharge in the southern Central Andes and linkages with climate variability},
  series = {Journal of hydrology},
  volume    = {555},
  journal   = {Journal of hydrology},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0022-1694},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.10.001},
  pages     = {108 -- 124},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {This study analyzes the discharge variability of small to medium drainage basins (10(2)-10(4) km(2)) in the southern Central Andes of NW Argentina. The Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) was applied to evaluate non-stationary oscillatory modes of variability and trends, based on four time series of monthly normalized discharge anomaly between 1940 and 2015. Statistically significant trends reveal increasing discharge during the past decades and document an intensification of the hydrological cycle during this period. An Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) analysis revealed that discharge variability in this region can be best described by five quasi-periodic statistically significant oscillatory modes, with mean periods varying from 1 to 20 y. Moreover, we show that discharge variability is most likely linked to the phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) at multi-decadal timescales (similar to 20 y) and, to a lesser degree, to the Tropical South Atlantic SST anomaly (TSA) variability at shorter timescales (similar to 2-5 y). Previous studies highlighted a rapid increase in discharge in the southern Central Andes during the 1970s, inferred to have been associated with the global 1976-77 climate shift. Our results suggest that the rapid discharge increase in the NW Argentine Andes coincides with the periodic enhancement of discharge, which is mainly linked to a negative to positive transition of the PDO phase and TSA variability associated with a long-term increasing trend. We therefore suggest that variations in discharge in this region are largely driven by both natural variability and the effects of global climate change. We furthermore posit that the links between atmospheric and hydrologic processes result from a combination of forcings that operate on different spatiotemporal scales. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{CastinoBookhagenStrecker2016,
  author    = {Castino, Fabiana and Bookhagen, Bodo and Strecker, Manfred},
  title     = {River-discharge dynamics in the Southern Central Andes and the 1976-77 global climate shift},
  series = {Geophysical research letters},
  volume    = {43},
  journal   = {Geophysical research letters},
  publisher = {American Geophysical Union},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {0094-8276},
  doi       = {10.1002/2016GL070868},
  pages     = {11679 -- 11687},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Recent studies have shown that the 1976-77 global climate shift strongly affected the South American climate. In our study, we observed a link between this climate shift and river-discharge variability in the subtropical Southern Central Andes. We analyzed the daily river-discharge time series between 1940 and 1999 from small to medium mountain drainage basins (10(2)-10(4) km(2) ) across a steep climatic and topographic gradient. We document that the discharge frequency distribution changed significantly, with higher percentiles exhibiting more pronounced trends. A change point between 1971 and 1977 marked an intensification of the hydrological cycle, which resulted in increased river discharge. In the upper Rio Bermejo basin of the northernmost Argentine Andes, the mean annual discharge increased by 40\% over 7 years. Our findings are important for flood risk management in areas impacted by the 1976-77 climate shift; discharge frequency distribution analysis provides important insights into the variability of the hydrological cycle in the Andean realm.},
  language  = {en}
}