The atmospheric heat source over the Bolivian plateau for a mean January

The atmospheric heat sources of large plateaus strongly influence the general circulation particularly in the summer season. The Bolivian plateau and the adjacent areas affect the upper tropospheric flow in a typical summer month by developing an anticyclone and deflecting the prevailing westerlies. The plateau initially warms the atmosphere through sensible heating and then through latent heating as thunderstorms develop.The atmospheric heat source over the Bolivian and adjacent plateau was computed employing conventional surface and satellite radiation data for the mean January 1979. Because of a lack of direct ground temperature data, the surface radiation was estimated following an empirical formula devised for some earlier Tibetan studies.The results revealed that the latent heating developing in the eastern and northeastern part of the plateau is the biggest contributor to the atmospheric heat source (500 W m^-2). A comparison of these results against similar recent results from Tibet showed that the atmospheric heat source in South America is stronger than that over Tibet, primarily because of increased rainfall over Bolivia.