Regional climate variability is not only influenced by the surrounding oceans but also it is very much influenced by the land surface conditions, such as those associated with tropical rainforests. Regional climate variability ranges from subdaily, daily to subseasonal, seasonal, interannual, decadal and longer timescales. Previous works have identified the South American Monsoon System as an important driver of regional climate variability in tropical and extratropical regions. On the other hand, the activity of large-scale climate patterns, such as Madden-Julian Oscillation, El Niño-Southern Oscillation, as well as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, strongly influences regional climate conditions with large seasonal and spatial variations. In addition, there are significant evidences that the human influence on climate, associated with global warming, ozone depletion, and land-use change, has important implications in altering the mean and variability of the climate in South America.
The talk will describe the main climate signals, drivers, feedbacks and teleconnections in South America including the interplay between internal variability and forced change. Confidence in regional climate information, derived from both observations and models, will also be discussed as well as its implication for building regional climate messages. The talk will end briefly discussing the main climate-related risks affecting the human and natural systems in South America.
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