@article{BoersBookhagenMarwanetal.2016, author = {Boers, Niklas and Bookhagen, Bodo and Marwan, Norbert and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Spatiotemporal characteristics and synchronization of extreme rainfall in South America with focus on the Andes Mountain range}, series = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system}, volume = {46}, journal = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0930-7575}, doi = {10.1007/s00382-015-2601-6}, pages = {601 -- 617}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The South American Andes are frequently exposed to intense rainfall events with varying moisture sources and precipitation-forming processes. In this study, we assess the spatiotemporal characteristics and geographical origins of rainfall over the South American continent. Using high-spatiotemporal resolution satellite data (TRMM 3B42 V7), we define four different types of rainfall events based on their (1) high magnitude, (2) long temporal extent, (3) large spatial extent, and (4) high magnitude, long temporal and large spatial extent combined. In a first step, we analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of these events over the entire South American continent and integrate their impact for the main Andean hydrologic catchments. Our results indicate that events of type 1 make the overall highest contributions to total seasonal rainfall (up to 50\%). However, each consecutive episode of the infrequent events of type 4 still accounts for up to 20\% of total seasonal rainfall in the subtropical Argentinean plains. In a second step, we employ complex network theory to unravel possibly non-linear and long-ranged climatic linkages for these four event types on the high-elevation Altiplano-Puna Plateau as well as in the main river catchments along the foothills of the Andes. Our results suggest that one to two particularly large squall lines per season, originating from northern Brazil, indirectly trigger large, long-lasting thunderstorms on the Altiplano Plateau. In general, we observe that extreme rainfall in the catchments north of approximately 20 degrees S typically originates from the Amazon Basin, while extreme rainfall at the eastern Andean foothills south of 20 degrees S and the Puna Plateau originates from southeastern South America.}, language = {en} } @incollection{BronstertCrisologoHeistermannetal.2020, author = {Bronstert, Axel and Crisologo, Irene and Heistermann, Maik and {\"O}zt{\"u}rk, Ugur and Vogel, Kristin and Wendi, Dadiyorto}, title = {Flash-floods: more often, more severe, more damaging?}, series = {Climate change, hazards and adaptation options: handling the impacts of a changing climate}, booktitle = {Climate change, hazards and adaptation options: handling the impacts of a changing climate}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-030-37425-9}, issn = {1610-2010}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-37425-9_12}, pages = {225 -- 244}, year = {2020}, abstract = {In recent years, urban and rural flash floods in Europe and abroad have gained considerable attention because of their sudden occurrence, severe material damages and even danger to life of inhabitants. This contribution addresses questions about possibly changing environmental conditions which might have altered the occurrence frequencies of such events and their consequences. We analyze the following major fields of environmental changes. Altered high intensity rain storm conditions, as a consequence of regionalwarming; Possibly altered runoff generation conditions in response to high intensity rainfall events; Possibly altered runoff concentration conditions in response to the usage and management of the landscape, such as agricultural, forest practices or rural roads; Effects of engineering measures in the catchment, such as retention basins, check dams, culverts, or river and geomorphological engineering measures. We take the flash-flood in Braunsbach, SW-Germany, as an example, where a particularly concise flash flood event occurred at the end of May 2016. This extreme cascading natural event led to immense damage in this particular village. The event is retrospectively analyzed with regard to meteorology, hydrology, geomorphology and damage to obtain a quantitative assessment of the processes and their development. The results show that it was a very rare rainfall event with extreme intensities, which in combination with catchment properties and altered environmental conditions led to extreme runoff, extreme debris flow and immense damages. Due to the complex and interacting processes, no single flood cause can be identified, since only the interplay of those led to such an event. We have shown that environmental changes are important, but-at least for this case study-even natural weather and hydrologic conditions would still have resulted in an extreme flash flood event.}, 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 (ae95th 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{OzturkMalikCheungetal.2019, author = {Ozturk, Ugur and Malik, Nishant and Cheung, Kevin and Marwan, Norbert and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {A network-based comparative study of extreme tropical and frontal storm rainfall over Japan}, series = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system}, volume = {53}, journal = {Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system}, number = {1-2}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0930-7575}, doi = {10.1007/s00382-018-4597-1}, pages = {521 -- 532}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Frequent and intense rainfall events demand innovative techniques to better predict the extreme rainfall dynamics. This task requires essentially the assessment of the basic types of atmospheric processes that trigger extreme rainfall, and then to examine the differences between those processes, which may help to identify key patterns to improve predictive algorithms. We employ tools from network theory to compare the spatial features of extreme rainfall over the Japanese archipelago and surrounding areas caused by two atmospheric processes: the Baiu front, which occurs mainly in June and July (JJ), and the tropical storms from August to November (ASON). We infer from complex networks of satellite-derived rainfall data, which are based on the nonlinear correlation measure of event synchronization. We compare the spatial scales involved in both systems and identify different regions which receive rainfall due to the large spatial scale of the Baiu and tropical storm systems. We observed that the spatial scales involved in the Baiu driven rainfall extremes, including the synoptic processes behind the frontal development, are larger than tropical storms, which even have long tracks during extratropical transitions. We further delineate regions of coherent rainfall during the two seasons based on network communities, identifying the horizontal (east-west) rainfall bands during JJ over the Japanese archipelago, while during ASON these bands align with the island arc of Japan.}, language = {en} }