Welcome to the South America affinity group website. This group was established to accelerate research and discoveries focusing on the water and energy cycle of South America. This effort is led by NCAR's Water Systems program and the Hydrometeorological Applications Program (HAP) and fosters collaborations across NCAR and the international research community. NCAR's role in this project is the development of a high-resolution, convection-permitting modeling system for South America, that enables unprecedented insights into atmospheric and hydro-climatologic processes in South America. NCAR closely collaborates with university patterns in the U.S. and South America and supports international research activities such as ANDEX, which is a prospective GEWEX Regional Hydroclimate Project (RHP).
NCAR is organizing regular meetings to foster collaborations on key research challenges in South America and to gather feedback on the project's progress and future direction. Agendas and recordings from past meetings can be found under the "Resources" tab.
A collection of science topics that are proposed by the group can be found in this Google Document. You have to be a group member to view and edit the document.
An overview of the 4-km WRF model performance in simulating key weather and climate processes in South America can be found on this dashboard.
Computational domain of 4 km WRF SAAG simulations.
This page contains meeting minutes and presentation records. The meetings are organized chronologically starting with the most recent on top.
October 20, 2021
The next SAAG meeting will happen on October 20 2021, at 10 am MST.
October 6, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rasmussen - Welcome
- Paula Arias - IPCC AR6 WG1 report overview
- Andreas Prein
- Summary of Sept. 29 Convection and Extreme Precipitation WG meeting
- Creation of core variable list for easier data sharing
- Update of SAAG webpage
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
September 22, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rasmussen - Welcome
- Kyoko Ikeda - 2010-2011 test simulation evaluation results
- Zhixiao Zhang - Analysis of WRF diagnostic output
- Lluis - n-down urban simulations over Buenos Aires
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
September 8, 2021
Agenda
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
August 25, 2021
Agenda
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
August 11, 2021
Agenda
- Andreas - Welcome and updates
- Andreas & Kyoko - Update and finalization of output variable
- Andreas - South Amercian sub-regions
- Andreas - Summary of Convection and Extreme Precipitation Working Group meeting
- Andreas - Summery of Model Intercomparison Working Group meeting
- Luis - Effects of HPC system on regional climate simulations
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
July 28, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Changhai Liu - Update on diagnostic output variables in 20-year simulations
- Kyoko Ikeda - Data Processing and archival plan
- Marcia Zilli - Climate analysis of tropical-extratropical cloud bands over South Amercia
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides Kyoko
Presented slides Marcia
July 14, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Kyoko Ikeda - Update on 3-test year evaluation
- Changhai Liu - Diagnostic output variables in 20-year simulations
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides Roy
Presented slides Kyoko
Presented slides Changhai
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Adam Varble and Zhe Feng - Discussion about model data storrage strategy for 2D output
- Changhai Liu - Update on SAAG simulations
- Justin Minder - Update from the SAAG Andes WG
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides Roy
Presented slides Adam
June 16, 2021
Agenda
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
June 2, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Alejandro Martinez - 1 km simulations over Columbia
- Andreas Prein - Deep Convection and Extreme Precipitation Working Group
- Changhai Liu - Update on 3-year test simulations
- Kyoko Ikeda - Evaluation of 3-year test simulatoins
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Kyoko Ikeda - Update on 3-year simulations
- Changhai Liu - Update on 20-year simulation
- Lluis Fita - Reserved venue for 6th CPM modeling workshop for the first week in September 2022 in Buenos Aires.
- Lluis Fita - PAIGH proposal was submitted
Funding for workshop participation.
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
May 5, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Francina Dominguez - CISL computational award for 20-year long simulations
- We got 48M core-hours and 600TB campaign storage
- Discussion on reviewer comments and simulation strategy - Patric Calerhand - CESM allocation request
- CESM simulations over South America with dx ~ 6 km
- 18M core-hours were awarded - Charles Jones - UCSB allocation request
- n-down simulations to 2 km over Norther and Central Andees domain
- 1.6 M core-hours for WRF simulations
- core-hours were not awarded
- request will be resubmitted in fall - Chris Castro - PAIGH proposal will be submitted by May 7th
- Anton Seimon - Weather station on Tupongato (6,505 m)
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides (Roy)
Presented slides (Anton)
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Kyoko Ikeda - Update on WRF three year simulations
- Monica Morrision, Maria Laura Bettoli, and Roy Rasmussen - 2021 AGU fall meeting session proposal
Session proposal was submitted on April 13, 2021 - Roy - WCRP has asked if SAAG wants to become a "Lighthouse Activity"
- Roy and Andreas - 5th Convection-Permitting Workshop (Sep. 8-10)
- Luis and Maria - 6th Convection-Permitting Workshop in fall 2022 in Buenos Aires
- Chris Castro - Update on PAIGH proposal
- Andreas - Creating a Google Data Studio Dashboard for South America simulations
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
April 7, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Roy - Review updated mind map of scientific topics
- Changhai - Update of 3-year simulation status
- Kyoko - Access to 3-year simulation data
- Roy & Monica - Update on AGU SAAG session proposal
- Roy - Plans for CPM workshop in Buenos Aires in 2022
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
March 24, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rassmussen - Welcome and updates
- Roy and Monica - South America session at this years AGU meeting
- Francina Dominquez - Computer request for 20 years WRF simulation
- Roy - 6th CPM Workshop possibly in South America
- Roy Rassmussen - Discussion on the scientific topics and data access
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
March 10, 2021
Agenda
- Roy - Welcome and updates
- Kyoko Ikeda - Effect of spectral nudging on WRF model performance over South America
- Francina Dominquez - Discussion about proposal for 20-year current and future climate simulatoins
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
February 24, 2021
Agenda
- Roy - Welcome and updates
- Kyoko Ikeda - Evaluation of 2018/19 WRF 4 km simulation precipitation
- Changhai Liu - Computer request for 20-year historic and future South America simulations
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
February 10, 2021
Agenda
- Kyoko Ikeda
- Discussion about WRF output data sharing
- Roy Rasmussen
- AGU session update
- 5th CPM workshop this September 2021
- 6th CPM workshop in South America
- Andreas Prein - Simulating Mesoscale Convective Systems over South America
- Changhai Liu - Computer request for 20-year historic and future South America simulations
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
January 27, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rasmussen
- Introduction and new group members
- Update from NCAR's 2021 Water Cycle Retreat
- Plans for a South America session at 2021 AGU fall meeting
- Adam Varble (PNNL) - Using CACTI data to study subtropical South American convective cloud systems and their representation in models
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
January 6, 2021
Agenda
- Roy Rasmussen - Introduction and new group members
- Everybody in the SAAG group is invited to NCAR's Water System Retreat (Jan. 20-21, 2021)
- Anton Seimon - Tropical High-Andes Precipitation Studies
- Changhai Liu - Update on 3-year test simulations
Recording
Video recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
December 16, 2020
Agenda
- Introduction of new group members
- Invitation to participate in NCAR's water system retreat (Jan. 20-21, 2021)
- Plan to organize AGU 2021 session with South America focus
- Next year's 5th CPM & Hazards workshop in Kyoto, Japan (September 4-6, 2021)
Discussion about having the 6th CPM workshop in South America (need local host) - Changhai - Update on the WRF model runs
The production run has started. - Kyoko - Update on storage of the model output
Recording
Video recording
Recording of chat discussion
Presented slides
December 2, 2020
Agenda
Recording
Video recording
Recording of chat discussion
November 11, 2020
Agenda
- Welcome (Roy and Andreas)
- Brief introduction of new members
- South America website review
- Update of South America WRF simulations (Changhai Liu)
- Mountain Waves over the Drake Passage (Chris Kruse)
Recording
Video Recording
Recording of chat discussion
October 7, 2020
Agenda
- Review of Agenda (Roy)
- Introduction of new members of the community
- Discussion about land surface changes in the Amazon basin
Andreas - New York Times article
Francina - Animation of moisture transport in South America - Discussion of Proposed Science Topics
Recording
Video recording
Recording of chat discussion
September 23, 2020
Agenda
- Review of Agenda (Roy)
- Update on current high-resolution modeling work - Changhai Liu
- Relampago MCS cases in WRF test runs - Andreas Prein
- Update by Francina Dominguez on her Sept. request to extend the previous request from Sept. 9th until May 2021.
- Summary of past request: Two runs conducted for two months in preparation for final test run consisting of three years, one El Nino, one La Nina, one neutral. The outcome of these runs will form the basis for the March 2021 submission to CISL for Cheyenne supercomputer time to perform the 20 years present and 20 years future 3 km simulations over South America.
- Discussion on the request for 20 years current and 20 years future WRF simulation over South America at 3 km grid spacing.
Deadline for submission: March 2021 for the University Large Allocation request. - Date and time for next meeting (Oct. 7th, 10-11 MST?)
Recording
No video recording available
Chat recording
September 9, 2020
Agenda
- Presentation - Luis Fita Borrel
WRF modeling in South America - using the Orchedee land surface model - Update on 3 km WRF simulations - Kyoko Ikeda and Changhai Liu
- Update on simulating the diurnal cycle of precipitation - Andreas Prein
Recording
Video Recording
Agenda
Update from Roy
- Review webpage content
- Changhai and Kyoko will present an update on the model test simulations.
Analysis of warm bias dependence on aerosol treatment - Andreas - sub-daily precipitation characteristic in South America test runs
Recording
Video Recording
Agenda
- Andy Newman
GMET - Overview of the Gridded Meteorological Ensemble Tool - Kristen Rasmussen
Ingredients supporting the upscale growth of organized convection in subtropical South America - Changhai Liu and Kyoko Ikeda
Update of WRF model performance over South America
Recording
Video recording
Recording of chat discussion
July 8, 2020
Agenda
Recording
Video recording
Audio recording
Recording of chat discussion
June 24, 2020
Agenda
Recordings
Video recording (not available)
Recording of chat discussion
May 13, 2020
Agenda
- Roy Rasmussen - NCAR
Welcome and introduction - Yazmina Rojas - University of Albany
Assessment of GPM IMERG satellite precipitation estimation and its dependence on microphysical rain regimes, over the mountains of south-central Chile - Lucia Scaff - University of Saskatchewan
Observational data availability - Kate Halladay - Met Office, Hadley Centre
Convection-permitting climate simulations for CSSP Brazil - Changhai Liu - NCAR
South America Simulations for Nov-Dec 2018: PBL Parameterizations & Spectral Nudging Testing
Recordings
Video recording
Recording of chat discussion
Observational Datasets in South America
Many of the regular precipitation and temperature observations in South America are operated by governmental institutions dedicated to water management and forecasting operations. We have gathered some of the publicly available data and combined them with the global datasets that are available in this region.
A summary of observations datasets in South America is published in Condom et al. (2020).
The following table summarizes observational datasets in South America. For further information contact Lucia Scaff (lucia.scaff@usask.ca) or Kyoko Ikeda (kyoko@ucar.edu).
| datasource | country | type | variables | Period | spatial
res. | temporal
res. | Data
Access* | Additional
Info |
IANIGLA-
SSRH | Argentina | stations | PR
TMAX
TMIN | 2010-2020* | point | daily | Link | |
| INMET | Brazil | stations | PR
TMAX
TMIN
RH
DT
Pressure
Wind
radiation | 2010-2018* | point | hourly | Link | Link |
CAMELS-
CR2met | Chile | stations | PR
TMAX
TMIN | 1979-2016 | point | daily | Link | Link |
CAMELS-
CR2met | Chile | gridded | PR
TMAX
TMIN | 1979-2018 | 0.05deg | daily | Link | Link |
CAMELS-
CHIRPS | Chile | gridded | PR | 1981-2016 | 0.05deg | daily | Link | Link |
CAMELS-
MSWEP | Chile | gridded | PR | 1979-2016 | 0.25deg | daily | Link | Link |
CAMELS-
TMPA | Chile | gridded | PR | 1998-2016 | 0.25deg | daily | Link | Link |
| IDEAM | Colombia | stations | PR | | point | daily | Link | Link |
| SENAMHI | Peru | gridded | PR
TMAX
TMIN | 1981-2017 | 0.1deg | daily | Link | Link |
| NCEI | Global | stations | | | | | Link | |
TRMM
3B42 V7.0 | Lat
60°N-S | gridded | PR | 2000-present | 0.25 deg | 3hrly | Link | Link |
GPM-
IMERG V06 | Lat
90°N-S | gridded | PR | 2000-present | 0.1 deg | 30 min, 3hrs, 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 1mo | Link | Link |
Argentina National Weather Service (updated on Aug. 26, 2020) | Argentina | stations | PR, T, Wind, Clouds, and others | 2018 | point | hourly | LINK | Dr. Lluís Fita Borrell |
*many of the websites are in Spanish or Portuguese and need registration
Sub-regoins in South America
The SAAG members decided to use the IPCC AR6 subregions (Iturbide et al. 2020) to preform analysis in South America. Below are the shape files of the regions that intersect with the 4 km WRF modeling domain and a netCDF file that contains a mask that assigns each grid cell to a AR6 region. Questions about these files should be addressed to Andreas Prein (prein@ucar.edu).
Available Variables from WRF Simulations
Below are summaries of the avalable variables from the planned 20-year long WRF 4 km climate simulation and the currently running 3-year long simulations. Please contact Kyoko Ikeda <kyoko@ucar.edu> if you have questions concerning the model output.
20-year long simulations (planned)
20 year run wrfout file variable -- These are all of the variables produced from the WRF model ( V4.1.5 with modifications) used for the 20-year run. We are still investigating if we can store hourly wrfout files. We have storrage to save post-processed and thinned out 1-hrly wrf2d and 3-hrly wrf3d files. This spreadsheet contains a description of the variables that will be saved in five output files:
- wrf2d (two-dimensional vairables; hourly)
- wrf3d (three-dimensional variables; hourly or 3-hourly)
- wrfxtrem (extreme variables; daily)
- AFWA (two-dimensional diagnostic variables; hourly)
- auxhist (small subset of 2D output at 15-minute interval)
It is important for the group to view the master list and make sure that the saved output contain all necessary model variables required for their research.
3-year long simulations (finished)
Wrfout file variables from the 3-year run -- we will keep hourly wrfout files for the 3-yr run but thinned-out 1-hourly wrf2d and 1-hourly wrf3d files will be also generated.
2-Dimensional model output (wrf2d)
3-Dimensional model output (wrf3d)
Extreme package model output (wrfxtrm)
The data from the 3-year test simulations can be accessed using Globus (www.globus.org) following the below links. Access is restricted to SAAG comunity members.
Data from 3-year test simulstions:
Daily precipitation from 3-year test simulations:
Proposal for NCAR Computer Resources Request
The University large allocation request that was awarded to Francina Dominguez by NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) can be accessed by the members of the South American Affinity group here.
Connecting Mountain Hydroclimate Through the American Cordilleras
In preparation for the ANDEX RHP, a series of research articles was published in a special issue in Frontiers on the topic of "Connecting Mountain Hydroclimate Through the American Cordilleras".
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/9969/connecting-mountain-hydroclimate-through-the-american-cordilleras#articles
A Proposed Regional Hydroclimate Project for the United States
This is an NCAR lead effort to establish a GEWEX Regional Hydroclimate Project over the United States. More information can be found in an article that by Schneider and van Oevelen published in GEWEX News Vol. 30, No. 2 | Quarter 2, 2020
https://www.gewex.org/gewex-content/files_mf/1590612006May2020.pdf
Land use and Land Surface Changes in Sout America
A sub-group of researchers that are interested in studying the impacts of land surface changes on the weather and climate of South America started to coordinate. Initial ideas for targeted experiments and regions of interest are summarized in this document.
This research is motivated by findings as those visualized in this award winning visualization that uses the WRF model to visualize the “beating” pattern that characterizes atmospheric moisture of the Amazon forest - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVP9B_85jfw
Literature about land surface changes in the Amazon Basin
Aguiar, A.P.D., Vieira, I.C.G., Assis, T.O., Dalla‐Nora, E.L., Toledo, P.M., Oliveira Santos‐Junior, R.A., Batistella, M., Coelho, A.S., Savaget, E.K., Aragão, L.E.O.C. and Nobre, C.A., 2016. Land use change emission scenarios: anticipating a forest transition process in the Brazilian Amazon. Global change biology, 22(5), pp.1821-1840.
Alves, L.M., Marengo, J.A., Fu, R. and Bombardi, R.J., 2017. Sensitivity of Amazon regional climate to deforestation. American Journal of Climate Change, 6(1), pp.75-98.
Eiras‐Barca, J., Dominguez, F., Yang, Z., Chug, D., Nieto, R., Gimeno, L. and Miguez‐Macho, G., 2020. Changes in South American hydroclimate under projected Amazonian deforestation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Guimberteau, M., Ciais, P., Ducharne, A., Boisier, J.P., Aguiar, A.P.D., Biemans, H., De Deurwaerder, H., Galbraith, D., Kruijt, B., Langerwisch, F. and Poveda, G., 2017. Impacts of future deforestation and climate change on the hydrology of the Amazon Basin: a multi-model analysis with a new set of land-cover change scenarios.
Ruiz-Vásquez, M., Arias, P.A., Martínez, J.A. and Espinoza, J.C., 2020. Effects of Amazon basin deforestation on regional atmospheric circulation and water vapor transport towards tropical South America. Climate Dynamics, pp.1-21.
New York Times article - IN THE AMAZON, TODAY’S ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS BECOME TOMORROW’S CATASTROPHES.
Severe storms in Argentina
Net York Times article - What’s Going on Inside the Fearsome Thunderstorms of Córdoba Province?
This tap summarized the activities of the SAAG Deep Convection Working Group. The intent of this WG is to coordinate reasearch and foster collaborations amogst the SAAG members interested in deep convective storms and extreme precipitation. You have to be a member of the SAAG e-mail list to view the meeting recordings.
This spreadsheat provides a high level summary of the proposed reseach in this WG.
Sep 29, 2021
Agenda
Aug 4, 2021
Agenda
May 17, 2021
Agenda
- Overview of proposed research activities
- Review of research topics (2-minutes each)
- Discussion of overlaps and potential collaborations
- Next steps
Recording
Chat Discussion
Slides
