On the Climate Impact of the Local Circulation in the Itaipu Lake Area

The impact of the Itaipu Lake on the climate and local circulation is investigated here using the meteorological information available in the area. The Itaipu Lake is an artificial water reservoir of 1460 km² (approximately 170 km by 7.5 km), formed in 1982 as part of the Itaipu Power Plant. It is situated on the Brazil-Paraguay frontier, in the central portion of Parana River Valley. The analysis of the available meteorological data (air and water temperatures, air relative humidity, precipitation and radiosonde soundings) provides observational evidences supporting the hypothesis that the Itaipu Lake presence has an important impact in the local circulation, inducing a local circulation with lake breeze characteristics showing horizontal wind divergence over the lake during daytime and convergence during nighttime. From the regional point of view, the Itaipu Lake formation has reduced the thermal amplitude of the diurnal air temperature cycle. The precipitation data, investigated here, has not indicated any systematic effect associated to the lake formation. The reason for the apparent inconsistency is that others phenomena (e.g., valley-mountain circulation and El Niño events) could be masking the impact of the lake formation on the rain deficit in the region.