SOME ASSOCIATIONS OF RAINFALL IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

Abstract

The coefficient of association (the square of the productmoment correlation coefficient) was used to determine the relationships of year to year rainfall variations in Central America, to investigate the extent of frontal activity by studying the January rainfall in Central America, and to describe the rainfall on a meso-scale area on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panama. Generally, high associations are limited to small geographical areas. The Pacific coast areas have higher association than do areas in the mountains or on the Caribbean coast. Associations across the isthmus are very low, with some areas having negative values. From the analysis of association it is suggested that cold fronts in January influence the rainfall as far south as southern Nicaragua but are restricted to the Caribbean area, and that frontal activity is not evident in the mountains. Association patterns in southern Costa Rica and southwestern Panama suggest that relatively small terrain features combined with the sea breeze front have great effects on the rainfall variations. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1965
Accession Number
AD0615579

Entities

People

  • Sidney Owen Barnard

Organizations

  • Texas A&M University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biological Phenomena
  • Central America
  • Coefficients
  • Cold Fronts
  • Continents
  • Costa Rica
  • Ecological And Environmental Phenomena
  • Ecological And Environmental Processes
  • Geographic Regions
  • Landforms
  • Meteorological Phenomena
  • Mountains
  • Nicaragua
  • Rainfall
  • Sea Breeze

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • International Relations, focusing on Korea-Africa and North Korea-South Korea relations, and Nigeria-Latin American Relations.
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Wetland-Land-Environmental Management.