African easterly waves : interactions over northern south america and the caribbean and interanual variations

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This Masters Thesis aims to understand the possible role of the African Easterly Waves (AEWs) on modulating precipitation over northern South America at different timescales from intraseasonal to interannual scales. The document is divided into two main parts: a first part addresses interactions associated to the activity of AEWs and their effects on the occurrence and inhibition of precipitation over northern South America whereas a second part aims to identify the interannual variability of AEWs related to El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. Both parts constitute independent papers that will be submitted for publication in indexed journals. This manuscript is divided into five sections, as follows: sections 1 and 2 introduce the state of the art and problem statement, respectively, guiding this Masters Thesis; section 3 presents the first paper (draft version) focused on the influence of AEWs on precipitation over northern South America; section 4 presents the second paper (near to submission), which addresses the interannual variability of AEWs related to ENSO; finally, section 5 presents the main conclusions and future work from this Masters Thesis. A brief summary of the two papers that constitute this Thesis is presented below.