Espinoza J. C. auteur aut IRD Ronchail J. auteur aut IRD Guyot Jean-Loup auteur aut IRD Junquas C. auteur aut IRD Vauchel Philippe auteur aut IRD Lavado W. auteur aut IRD Drapeau G. auteur aut IRD Pombosa R. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access This work provides an initial overview of climate features and their related hydrological impacts during the recent extreme droughts (1995, 1998, 2005 and 2010) in the upper Solimoes River (western Amazon), using comprehensive in situ discharge and rainfall datasets. The droughts are generally associated with positive SST anomalies in the tropical North Atlantic and weak trade winds and water vapor transport toward the upper Solimoes, which, in association with increased subsidence over central and southern Amazon, explain the lack of rainfall and very low discharge values. But in 1998, toward the end of the 1997-98 El Nino event, the drought is more likely related to an anomalous divergence of water vapor in the western Amazon that is characteristic of a warm event in the Pacific. During the austral spring and winter of 2010, the most severe drought since the seventies has been registered in the upper Solimoes. Its intensity and its length, when compared to the 2005 drought, can be explained by the addition of an El Nino in austral summer and a very warm episode in the Atlantic in boreal spring and summer. As in 2005, the lack of water in 2010 was more important in the southern tropical tributaries of the upper Solimoes than in the northern ones. specialized AMAZONIE 062 38 L13406 2011 0094-8276 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010053728 10.1029/2011gl047862 0094-8276 [F B010053728] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010053728 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers17-08/010053728.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2011-09-01 2021-10-30 fdi:010053728 fre