Figure 6
From: Projections of the future disappearance of the Quelccaya Ice Cap in the Central Andes
FLH – SST linear relationship. Tropical SST forcing of FLH at QIC during 1980–2017 (hydrologic years). Annual FLH anomalies (FLHA) at QIC were calculated by interpolating bias-corrected air temperature (Ta) and geopotential height (Zg) from ERA-interim reanalysis, between 500 and 600 hPa pressure levels at QIC summit location (red line). The bias-corrected Ta was obtained by fitting the ERA-interim Ta product with observed Ta data from an AWS at QIC summit. The annual mean tropical SST anomalies (spatially averaged across 28.75°N to 28.75°S) were calculated from ERSST data (blue line). Anomalies were calculated using the baseline 1979–2005 period. The linear relationship between FLHA and tropical SSTA can be expressed as FLHA = 286.4 × SSTA + 1.4m, with r = 0.84 and p-value < 0.001.
