Abstract
This article provides a comprehensive hydrometeorological dataset collected over the past two decades throughout the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. The data recording sites, located in the upper portion of the Rio Santa valley, also known as the Callejon de Huaylas, span an elevation range of 3738–4750 m a.s.l. As many historical hydrological stations measuring daily discharge across the region became defunct after their installation in the 1950s, there was a need for new stations to be installed and an opportunity to increase the temporal resolution of the streamflow observations. Through inter-institutional collaboration the hydrometeorological network described in this paper was deployed with goals to evaluate how progressive glacier mass loss was impacting stream hydrology, and to better understand the local manifestation of climate change over diurnal to seasonal and interannual time scales. The four automatic weather stations supply detailed meteorological observations, and are situated in a variety of mountain landscapes, with one on a high-mountain pass, another next to a glacial lake, and two in glacially carved valleys. Four additional temperature and relative humidity loggers complement the weather stations within the Llanganuco valley by providing these data across an elevation gradient. The six streamflow gauges are located in tributaries to the Rio Santa and collect high temporal resolution runoff data. The datasets presented here are available freely from https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.059794371790407abd749576df8fd121 (Mateo et al., 2021). Combined, the hydrological and meteorological data collected throughout the Cordillera Blanca enable detailed research of atmospheric and hydrological processes in tropical high-mountain terrain.
Highlights
Glaciers and water resources in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, have been under close observation for nearly a century
We document available data from the Cordillera Blanca area collected over the past 15 years. It is separated into (i) meteorological data recorded by permanently installed automatic temperature and relative humidity loggers (Lascars), or automatic weather stations, and (ii) hydrological data consisting of stage and discharge data from multiple sub-catchments
The region has been the focus of glacier monitoring efforts for nearly a century
Summary
Glaciers and water resources in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, have been under close observation for nearly a century. Our embedded temperature and humidity loggers distributed over elevation and linked to weather stations in the Llanganuco valley have revealed novel diurnal to seasonal variations in lapse rates linked to catchment-specific valley wind dynamics validated with downscaled climate models (Hellstrom et al, 2017) These studies demonstrate the importance of collecting in situ hydrometeorological data and indicate the need for continued data collection in the high Andes (Condom et al, 2020). We document available data from the Cordillera Blanca area collected over the past 15 years It is separated into (i) meteorological data recorded by permanently installed automatic temperature and relative humidity loggers (Lascars), or automatic weather stations, and (ii) hydrological data consisting of stage and discharge data from multiple sub-catchments. The data collection consists of multiple time series of point observations from both meteorological and hydrological measurement sites These high-temporal resolution data provide detailed insight into the complex hydro-meteorological system of the tropical Cordillera Blanca. We provide details of the setup and context of the discharge gauging station network, and conclude by presenting the time series of discharge data and general statistics from them
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