Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of the Central American Wind Jets

Central American low level wind jets, namely, the jets of Tehuantepec, Papagayo and Panamá are due essentially to the topography factor that channels the winds from the Gulf of México and Caribbean Sea. Three mountain gaps in the Sierra Madre mountain chain, as well as their accommodation in a tropical region with a high and complex atmospheric dynamism modulate them from distinct temporal scales. The jets trigger large impacts in the region, especially, and with considerable effects in the Tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean, generating processes like mesoscale eddies, upwelling, microorganism boom, among others. Despite the large amount of literature about it, there has not been in the consulted bibliography, a systematic treatment aimed to get a climatological knowledge about behavior of the wind jets that allow to learn about the average nature of the phenomenon. The aim of this work is to review the way in which these jets behave, both temporally and spatially, seeking to relate these behaviors to those that trigger them and modulate them. Wind data and sea level pressure from ERA-Interim reanalysis are used at different resolutions. In a first moment, a couple of mode decomposition techniques, have been used, as well as the analysis of the raw data series, which have allowed us to know the variability of the wind in the region. With approach to the event scale, the vertical behavior of the jets has also been described, as well as the sequential activation of the jets in north-south direction. The evidence suggests that in addition to the cold fronts coming from the north, the low level jet of the Caribbean has a certain degree of importance in the modulation of the Papagayo and Panamá jets.