Fog water yields in the hyper arid Atacama coastal desert - a spatiotemporal analysis of natural water resources In the Tarapacá Region, Chile
Abstract
The hyperarid Atacama Desert is characterized by average precipitation rates of partly less than 1 mm/year. Thus fog water plays an important role as natural water resource. Coastal stratocumulus when in contact with the coastal mountain range allows the presence of this fog and thus the availability of water not only for very specialized ecosystems but also for use by ancient and present human activities. In this study, we aim to constrains availability of the fog-water in the coastal Atacama. The relevance for understanding the potential of fog-water in this very restrictive hyperarid land is to collaborate in adaptive plans to climate change, environmental policies and prevention of social risk. In order to better understand the behavior and the volume of fog-water available in the coastal Atacama Desert, five Standard Fog Collectors (SFC) were installed as part of a regional climate observation network. Each site consider different elevation, aspect and distance to the coastline to compare water yields related with the variation in those different geographic conditions. Two main areas are characterized, coastal one in Alto Patache (4 km from the coast with elevation from 750 and 850 m a.s.l.) and Cerro Oyarbide (10 to 15 km from coast and elevations from 750, 1130 to 1200 m a.s.l.). This distribution in vertical and longitudinal transect generates a comprehensive dataset to go over questions, such as: how does the fog water yield fluctuates from coast to inland desert? How elevation does affects fog-water yields amount? How are the seasonal variations of the fog-water yields? Together with the fog-water volume, we intent to understand and model how different meteorological variables, such as air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, which together with altitude, slope and aspect determine the fog-water yields in each location.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.A31J2982D
- Keywords:
-
- 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 4548 Ocean fog;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL