Climatic Characteristics of the Semi-Arid Coquimbo Region in Chile
Journal of Arid Environments 126 (2016) 7e11 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Climatic characteristics of the semi-arid Coquimbo Region in Chile * S. Montecinos a, b, , J.R. Gutierrez c, d, e,F.Lopez-Cort es c,D.Lopez d a Departamento de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena, Avenida Juan Cisternas 1200, La Serena, Chile b Centro Estudio Recursos de Energía, Universidad Arturo Prat (CERE-UNAP), Avda. Arturo Prat 2120, Iquique, Chile c Departamento de Biología, Universidad de La Serena, Raúl Bitran 1305, La Serena, Chile d Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Aridas (CEAZA), Raúl Bitran 1305, La Serena, Chile e Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB), Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile article info abstract Article history: The climate of the Coquimbo Region, north-central Chile is driven by atmospheric, oceanic and Received 17 December 2014 orographic factors. The southeast Pacific anticyclone, the cold Humboldt Current and the rugged Received in revised form topography that characterize the zone, determine thermally induced wind regimes and the formation of 5 May 2015 low stratocumulus along the coastline. Low precipitation and high solar radiation cause important cli- Accepted 30 September 2015 matic altitudinal gradients, especially on temperature and humidity, thus different climatic areas can be Available online 17 October 2015 identified in the region. We summarized the general climatic characteristics of the study area and analyzed meteorological data to understand the behavior of the environmental variables. We used Keywords:: Atmospheric modeling mesoscale modeling to evaluate the spatial characteristics of the mean air temperature, humidity and Semi-arid zones wind.
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