Recent advances and current needs for improving our understanding of glacier and hydro-climatic processes in the southern Andes

MASIOKAS, M. H.

Ginebra

Congreso; High Mountain Summit; 2019

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

The Andes cordillera extends from ca. 10°N to 55°S (>7000 km) along the west margin of South America. Along this latitudinal range the Andes portray an impressive variety of topographic and climatic conditions that result in extremely diverse natural environments. About 75 million people live in the Andean region and depend on Andean water resources for human consumption, irrigation, industries, tourism, recreation, hydropower generation, and aquifer recharge. The Andean cryosphere, one of the most extensive and diverse on Earth, is a key provider of freshwater in this region. Possible actions for improving the knowledge on glacier and hydro-climatic processes in the southern Andes include: - Develop a substantially larger and better coordinated network of AWS from the highest elevations and with the capacity of transmitting data in real time - Integrate and harmonize the measurements from these stations into an easy to acces web portal - Integrate remote sensing information from these sitesThis information has many potential applications:-Improved hydrological and meteorological models-Better dissemination and sharing of high elevation data-Improved early warning systems-More effective validation exercises-Better informed ecological assessments