• Location (Physiographic Region): High-plateau Antiplano region in the Eastern Cordillera of Southern Peru. 
• Area: 1155 km² (SQC headwater basin = 53.6 km²) 
• Elevation: 3500-6000 m  
• Description (Physical–Ecological–Climatic Characteristics): Mountainous landscape with a complex geology and glacial history. Extensive peat deposits in valley bottoms. Glaciers present above c. 5200m.a.sl. Annual precipitation in the Cordillera Vilcanota, between 800 and 1000 mm, is driven largely by advective moisture transport from the nearby Amazon basin (Perry et al., 2017, Drenkhan et al., 2019). Over half the mean annual rainfall falls during the austral summer ‘wet season’ months of December, January and February. Small seasonal temperature range (4.5 – 6.5°C), but a much larger diurnal range with frequent subzero temperatures at night followed by daily maxima in the mid-teens.
• Drainage/River System: Headwater streams drain to the Vilcanota river.
• Site History/Historical Context: The Cordillera is the second largest tropical glaciated mountain range in the world, and the world’s largest tropical glacier, Quelccaya, is located within the basin. Ice core records extracted from Quelcayya since the early 1980s have provided an annually resolved palaeoclimate record for the last 1500 years, and have provided the impetus for modern-day collection of precipitation isotopes and other hydrometric data.
• Glacierized Area: 5.3% (SQC= 16%)
• Main Land Cover(s): Extensive glacial till covering in valley bottoms overlain by peat, shallow poorly developed soils on hillslopes.
• Lithology/Soils: Complex, metamorphic/sedimentary units of the Mitu group.
• Mean Annual Temperature: 
• Mean Total Annual Precipitation: 800 mm total
• Snow Characteristics: Ephemeral, usually persisting for no more than a few days even at high elevations. 
• Years of Data: Hydrometric monitoring since 2016, meteorological data largely available only since 2018. More intensive data collection / sensor maintenance from start of COPE observation period.

Observational Stations and Sites

Geospatial Data

Observational Data Availability 

• See Fyffe et al, 2021 for good summary of available glaciological data in the basin https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD034911

Ross, Anthony C., Marc Martinez Mendoza, Fabian Drenkhan, Nilton Montoya, Jan R. Baiker, Jonathan D. Mackay, David M. Hannah, and Wouter Buytaert. "Seasonal water storage and release dynamics of bofedal wetlands in the Central Andes." Hydrological processes 37, no. 8 (2023): e14940. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14940

• This paper describes recent hydrological modelling work in the basin and demonstrates the flexible approach required to make further advances in glacierized tropical areas given data scarcity.

• Thompson, Lonnie G., Ellen Mosley-Thompson, John F. Bolzan, and Bruce R. Koci. "A 1500-year record of tropical precipitation in ice cores from the Quelccaya ice cap, Peru." Science 229, no. 4717 (1985): 971-973. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.229.4717.971 
• Fyffe, Catriona L., Emily Potter, Stefan Fugger, Andrew Orr, Simone Fatichi, Edwin Loarte, Katy Medina et al. "The energy and mass balance of Peruvian glaciers." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 126, no. 23 (2021): e2021JD034911. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD034911 
• Perry, L. Baker, Anton Seimon, and Ginger M. Kelly. "Precipitation delivery in the tropical high Andes of southern Peru: new findings and paleoclimatic implications." International journal of Climatology 34, no. 1 (2014): 197-215. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3679 

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