Abstract

MARIN-RAMIREZ, Arlex; GOMEZ-GIRALDO, Andrés  and  ROMAN-BOTERO, Ricardo. Seasonal variability of advective and atmospheric heat fluxes and mean temperature in a tropical Andean reservoir. Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2020, vol.44, n.171, pp.360-375.  Epub June 08, 2021. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.1081.

To identify the main factors controlling the seasonal thermal dynamics of an Andean tropical reservoir, we estimated the energy balance using field data, empirical correlations, and hydrodynamic modeling with CE-QUAL-W2. We propose a methodology for estimating variations in the mean temperature induced by advective and atmospheric fluxes considering volume changes. We found that the temperature variations related to advective fluxes were two times higher than those related to atmospheric fluxes and could be up to 13 times higher in the wet season. To our best knowledge, there are not reports showing reservoir energy balances where advective fluxes dominate temperature variations in such a high degree. The main factors explaining this behavior would be a short flushing time (VQ~50 days), the location of the reservoir in the intertropical convergence zone and its influence on the incident solar radiation and precipitation, as well as its canyon-type morphology and low wind velocity. These features are common in tropical Andean reservoirs suggesting a distinctive thermal regime, which, in turn, could be determinant to the biogeochemical processes in these systems.

Keywords : Tropical Andean reservoir; Temperature annual cycle; Energy budget; Numerical modeling; Advective heat fluxes.

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