Andean Meltdown

Andean Meltdown
Author: Karsten Paerregaard
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2023-08
Genre:
ISBN: 0520393910

Andean Meltdown examines how climate change and its consequences for Peru's glaciers are affecting the country's water supply and impacting Andean society and culture in unprecedented ways. Drawing on forty years of extensive research, relationship building, and community engagement in Peru, Karsten Paerregaard provides an ethnographic exploration of Andean ritual practices and performances in the context of an altered climate. By documenting Andean peoples' responses to rapid glacier retreat and urgent water shortages, Paerregaard considers the myriad ways climate change intersects with environmental, social, and political change. A pathbreaking contribution to cultural anthropology and environmental humanities, Andean Meltdown challenges prevailing theoretical thinking about the culture-nature nexus and offers a new perspective on Andean peoples' understanding of their role as agents in the shifting relationship between humans and nonhumans.

Evaluation of Local Climate Variability in the Peruvian Andes

Evaluation of Local Climate Variability in the Peruvian Andes
Author: Shawn P. Stone
Publisher:
Total Pages: 19
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

Abstract: Rapid environmental change in the tropical Andes may have significant impacts on glacial melt rates and water resources provided by those glaciers. We analyzed a high-resolution (i.e. hourly) archive of spatially distributed climate observations from the Cordillera Blanca (8-10°S) between July 2006 and July 2010. We collected these observations using a network of Lascar Data Loggers. The network consists of nine lascars arranged throughout the Llanganuco valley. The lascars range from 3458 to 4775 meters above sea level. Analyses of the four-year data set were conducted on three temporal scales: diurnal, seasonal, and inter-annual. Altitudinal variability was also considered. Data processing was comprised of five levels of analyses: (1) steps taken to consolidate and give confidence to the collected data; (2) a review of diurnal variability and trends; (3) a review of seasonal variability; (4) a review of inter-annual variability and trends; and (5) an evaluation of trends across elevation gradients. The evaluation of diurnal and vertical patterns between seasons was conducted in a similar fashion. These data were then compared to regional data archives for comparison. The data collected by the lascar network in Llanganuco can be used as an input to our glacier mass balance and flow model. Providing a model to predict glacial mass balance changes can be a valuable tool for scientists and policy-makers alike in determining management practices for water resources in the Cordillera Blanca.

Empirical-statistical Downscaling

Empirical-statistical Downscaling
Author: Rasmus E. Benestad
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2008
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9812819126

Empirical-statistical downscaling (ESD) is a method for estimating how local climatic variables are affected by large-scale climatic conditions. ESD has been applied to local climate/weather studies for years, but there are few ? if any ? textbooks on the subject. It is also anticipated that ESD will become more important and commonplace in the future, as anthropogenic global warming proceeds. Thus, a textbook on ESD will be important for next-generation climate scientists.

Developing a Portable Station to Assess Climate Change and Air Quality in the Central Peruvian Andes

Developing a Portable Station to Assess Climate Change and Air Quality in the Central Peruvian Andes
Author: Antonio De Marchis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN:

This study seeks to develop a portable sensor network tailored specifically to the needs of two agricultural communities in the Central Andes of Peru. The research begins with a broad survey of Peru's climatic state through the lens of global climate change, epitomized by the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on each of Peru's three areas: coast, jungle, and highlands, the last of which the Junín region partly comprises. Upon more deeply examining the circumstances pervading Junín, the study turns to the residents of Sicaya and Huayao, who offer insight into their climate-related experiences and adaptations (both personal and agricultural) necessitated by increasingly unpredictable climate patterns and meteorological events. Their testimony warrants consideration of Peru's available tools that assess lower atmospheric phenomena: radar-based instruments studying the ionosphere and in situ devices measuring variables directly. However, the still-ambiguous link between upper and lower atmosphere climate change combined with the stationary and sparse nature of existing sensors compels the design and initial testing of a portable, independently powered system measuring three classes of variables: temperature and relative humidity, particulate matter concentrations and size distributions, and greenhouse gas concentrations. The design considers the need for low cost and ease of use in including an independently operating handheld particle counter, a voltage-outputting temperature and humidity probe and gas analyzer, an Arduino Mega controller, and a pair of lithium batteries charged via solar energy. Extenuating circumstances prevent initial testing from fully verifying the system's feasibility in Central Andean operation; nevertheless, the particle counter and gas analyzer demonstrate potential applicational reliability. The study concludes by detailing a future testing regimen that must necessarily precede full system deployment in Sicaya or Huayao.

The Andes of Southern Peru

The Andes of Southern Peru
Author: Isaiah Bowman
Publisher: New York : Published for the American Geographical Society by Holt
Total Pages: 448
Release: 1916
Genre: Science
ISBN: