Spatial and Temporal Variability of Precipitation Complexity in Northeast Brazil

Antonio Samuel Alves da Silva (), Ikaro Daniel de Carvalho Barreto (), Moacyr Cunha-Filho, Rômulo Simões Cezar Menezes, Borko Stosic and Tatijana Stosic
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Antonio Samuel Alves da Silva: Departamento de Estatística e Informática, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Av. Manoel Medeiros S/N, Dois Irmãos, Recife 52171-900, PE, Brazil
Ikaro Daniel de Carvalho Barreto: Departamento de Estatística e Informática, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Av. Manoel Medeiros S/N, Dois Irmãos, Recife 52171-900, PE, Brazil
Moacyr Cunha-Filho: Departamento de Energia Nuclear, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Moraes Rego 1235, Cidade Universitária, Recife 50670-901, PE, Brazil
Rômulo Simões Cezar Menezes: Departamento de Energia Nuclear, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Moraes Rego 1235, Cidade Universitária, Recife 50670-901, PE, Brazil
Borko Stosic: Departamento de Estatística e Informática, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Av. Manoel Medeiros S/N, Dois Irmãos, Recife 52171-900, PE, Brazil
Tatijana Stosic: Departamento de Estatística e Informática, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Av. Manoel Medeiros S/N, Dois Irmãos, Recife 52171-900, PE, Brazil

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: In this work, we analyze the regularity of monthly rainfall temporal series during the period 1953 to 2012, recorded at 133 gauging stations in the state of Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil. We use sample entropy method (SampEn), which is suitable for short and noisy data and recently attracted the attention of hydrologists as promising for rainfall studies. By comparing the SampEn values of the analyzed series, we find that for both the original and deseasonalized series entropy increases (regularity decreases) in the west–east direction from the inland Sertão region towards the coastal Zona da Mata . SampEn values for the semiarid Sertão region are significantly different from the humid coastal Zona da Mata and subhumid transition Agreste regions. By comparing two 30 year subperiods (1953–1982 and 1983–2012), we found that in the second period, the rainfall amount decreases in Sertão and Agreste , and increases in Zona de Mata, and that the Agreste and Zona da Mata regions become more similar in respect to the regularity of rainfall dynamics. In the second subperiod, the rainfall regime changes the most in Zona da Mata (both original and anomalies series show a significant difference in SampEn values). By analyzing time dependent SampEn, we identified several periods of increasing entropy, which are related to specific climatic phenomena such as subsequent El Niño and La Niña episodes. This work represents a contribution to establishing the use of information theory-based methods in climatological studies.

Keywords: rainfall; sample entropy; time series regularity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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