• CRN Project
  Coastal Sedimentary Proxies Atoll Lagoon and Marine Proxies Tree Rings, Speleothems and Corals Historical Records GIS Component Study area
• GIS Web Map
  Socioeconomic Data Hurricane Track Data
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Co-PI Jorge Amador will collect documentary or other historical data to construct an updated historical view of intense hurricane activity, floods, and droughts in the Mesoamerican region, and their impacts on various socio-economic sectors. He will also investigate the relationship between Caribbean hurricane activity and the Intra Americas Low Level Jet, an important climatic element in controlling the lower troposphere vertical wind shear, which is in turn known to inhibit convection and tropical cyclone development.

Co-PI Eric Alfaro will investigate the relationship between Caribbean hurricane activity and Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SST). He will focus on how the landfall (strike) probabilities of intense hurricanes on the coastal areas of the Caribbean region will change as a function of varying ENSO and Atlantic SST conditions. He will also conduct case studies of specific hurricane strikes in the Central American and Caribbean region to investigate their impacts on several socio-economic variables, such as economic loss, casualties, health (e.g., epidemic disease), agricultural production, and human migrations. Cases from different time periods (e.g., late 19th vs late 20th century) and from different Central American countries will be compared to reveal changes in societal vulnerability as a function of the growth and changing distributions of population and properties.

Co-PI Jorge Sanchez-Sesma will analyze the trends and temporal variability of Atlantic paleohurricane activity in the context of large-scale climatic phenomena as ENSO, AMO, PDO, and NAO, paying special attention to the statistical relationships and climatic teleconnections between paleohurricane activity in the Caribbean and the reconstructed paleo-typhoon activity in the Northwest Pacific region during the last five centuries. In addition, he will collect socio-economic and demographic data from Mexico in support of the socio-economic and GIS component of this collaborative project. He will also investigate the possible connections between Caribbean paleohurricane activity and the rise and fall of ancient cultures in Mesoamerica.