scispace - formally typeset
Journal ArticleDOI

Soil Moisture and the Persistence of North American Drought

Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this paper, the effects of soil moisture on North American summertime climate were performed using a 12-layer global atmospheric general circulation model, and it was found that a reduction in soil moisture leads to an increase in surface temperature, lower surface pressure, increased ridging aloft, and a northward shift of the jet stream.
Abstract
Numerical sensitivity experiments on the effects of soil moisture on North American summertime climate are performed using a 12-layer global atmospheric general circulation model. Consideration is given to the hypothesis that reduced soil moisture may induce and amplify warm, dry summers of midlatitude continental interiors. The simulations resemble the conditions of the summer of 1988, including an extensive drought over much of North America. It is found that a reduction in soil moisture leads to an increase in surface temperature, lower surface pressure, increased ridging aloft, and a northward shift of the jet stream. It is shown that low-level moisture advection from the Gulf of Mexico is important in the maintenance of persistent soil moisture deficits.

read more

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Soil Moisture–Atmosphere Interactions during the 2003 European Summer Heat Wave

TL;DR: The role of land surface-related processes and feedbacks during the record-breaking 2003 European summer heat wave is explored with a regional climate model in this article, where sensitivity experiments are performed by perturbing spring soil moisture in order to determine its influence on the formation of the heat wave.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Soil Moisture–Rainfall Feedback Mechanism: 1. Theory and observations

TL;DR: Zheng et al. as discussed by the authors proposed a positive feedback mechanism between soil moisture and rainfall, which is based on considerations of the energy balance at the land-atmosphere boundary, in contrast to similar mechanisms that were proposed in the past and that were based on the concepts of water balance and precipitation recycling.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Soil–Precipitation Feedback: A Process Study with a Regional Climate Model

TL;DR: In this paper, month-long integrations with a regional climate model covering Europe and the Northern Atlantic are utilized to study the sensitivity of the summertime European precipitation climate with respect to the continental-scale soil moisture content.
Related Papers (5)