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Simulating Impacts of Ice Storms on Forest Ecosystems
Published on: June 30, 2020
Hurricanes as an enabler of Amazon fires
Enoch Yan Lok Tsui1,2, Ralf Toumi3,4
1Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK. e.tsui20@imperial.ac.uk.
Abstract:
A teleconnection between North Atlantic tropical storms and Amazon fires is investigated as a possible case of compound remote extreme events. The seasonal cycles of the storms and fires are in phase with a maximum around September and have significant inter-annual correlation. Years of high Amazon fire activity are associated with atmospheric conditions over the Atlantic which favour tropical cyclones. We propose that anomalous precipitation and latent heating in the Caribbean, partly caused by tropical storms, leads to a thermal circulation response which creates anomalous subsidence and enhances surface solar heating over the Amazon. The Caribbean storms and precipitation anomalies could thus promote favourable atmospheric conditions for Amazon fire.
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