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Precipitation

About: Precipitation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 32861 publications have been published within this topic receiving 990496 citations. The topic is also known as: rain & rainfall.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The influence of altitude on rainfall composition and wet deposition has been investigated at Great Dun Fell in northern England as mentioned in this paper, where orographic cloud is present and a west or southwest wind is blowing.

199 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied CO2-induced changes in the interannual variability of monthly surface air temperature and precipitation using 19 model experiments participating in the second phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP2).
Abstract: CO2-induced changes in the interannual variability of monthly surface air temperature and precipitation are studied using 19 model experiments participating in the second phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP2). The magnitude of variability in the control runs appears generally reasonable, but it varies a great deal between different models, almost all of which overestimate temperature variability on low-latitude land areas. In most models the gradual doubling of CO2 leads to a decrease in temperature variability in the winter half-year in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere and over the high-latitude Southern Ocean. Over land in low latitudes and in northern midlatitudes in summer, a slight tendency toward increased temperature variability occurs. The standard deviation of monthly precipitation increases, on average, where the mean precipitation increases but also does so in some areas where the mean precipitation decreases slightly. The coefficient of variation of precipitation (i.e., the ratio between the standard deviation and the mean) also tends to increase in most areas, especially where the mean precipitation decreases. However, the changes in variability are less similar between the 19 experiments than the changes in mean temperature and precipitation, at least partly because they have a much lower signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, the changes in the standard deviation of monthly temperature are generally much smaller than the time-mean warming, which suggests that future changes in the extremes of interannual temperature variability will be largely determined by the latter.

198 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the quality of global sea level pressure patterns has been assessed for simulations by 23 coupled climate models and five models performed well at all latitudes and for each month of the year.
Abstract: The quality of global sea level pressure patterns has been assessed for simulations by 23 coupled climate models. Most models showed high pattern correlations. With respect to the explained spatial variance, many models showed serious large-scale deficiencies, especially at mid-latitudes. Five models performed well at all latitudes and for each month of the year. Three models had a reasonable skill. We selected the five models with the best pressure patterns for a more detailed assessment of their simulations of the climate in Central Europe. We analysed observations and simulations of monthly mean geostrophic flow indices and of monthly mean temperature and precipitation. We used three geostrophic flow indices: the west component and south component of the geostrophic wind at the surface and the geostrophic vorticity. We found that circulation biases were important, and affected precipitation in particular. Apart from these circulation biases, the models showed other biases in temperature and precipitation, which were for some models larger than the circulation induced biases. For the 21st century the five models simulated quite different changes in circulation, precipitation and temperature. Precipitation changes appear to be primarily caused by circulation changes. Since the models show widely different circulation changes, especially in late summer, precipitation changes vary widely between the models as well. Some models simulate severe drying in late summer, while one model simulates significant precipitation increases in late summer. With respect to the mean temperature the circulation changes were important, but not dominant. However, changes in the distribution of monthly mean temperatures, do show large indirect influences of circulation changes. Especially in late summer, two models simulate very strong warming of warm months, which can be attributed to severe summer drying in the simulations by these models. The models differ also significantly in the simulated warming of cold winter months. Finally, the models simulate rather different changes in North Atlantic sea surface temperature, which is likely to impact on changes in temperature and precipitation. These results imply that several important aspects of climate change in Central Europe are highly uncertain. Other aspects of the simulated climate change appear to be more robust. All models simulate significant warming all year round and an increase in precipitation in the winter half-year.

198 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A global synthesis Rs data from studies that have manipulated precipitation in the field suggests that soil moisture and Rs tend to be more sensitive to increased precipitation in more arid areas and more responsive to decreased precipitation inMore humid areas.
Abstract: Soil respiration (Rs) is the second-largest terrestrial carbon (C) flux. Although Rs has been extensively studied across a broad range of biomes, there is surprisingly little consensus on how the spatiotemporal patterns of Rs will be altered in a warming climate with changing precipitation regimes. Here, we present a global synthesis Rs data from studies that have manipulated precipitation in the field by collating studies from 113 increased precipitation treatments, 91 decreased precipitation treatments, and 14 prolonged drought treatments. Our meta-analysis indicated that when the increased precipitation treatments were normalized to 28% above the ambient level, the soil moisture, Rs, and the temperature sensitivity (Q10) values increased by an average of 17%, 16%, and 6%, respectively, and the soil temperature decreased by -1.3%. The greatest increases in Rs and Q10 were observed in arid areas, and the stimulation rates decreased with increases in climate humidity. When the decreased precipitation treatments were normalized to 28% below the ambient level, the soil moisture and Rs values decreased by an average of -14% and -17%, respectively, and the soil temperature and Q10 values were not altered. The reductions in soil moisture tended to be greater in more humid areas. Prolonged drought without alterations in the amount of precipitation reduced the soil moisture and Rs by -12% and -6%, respectively, but did not alter Q10. Overall, our synthesis suggests that soil moisture and Rs tend to be more sensitive to increased precipitation in more arid areas and more responsive to decreased precipitation in more humid areas. The responses of Rs and Q10 were predominantly driven by precipitation-induced changes in the soil moisture, whereas changes in the soil temperature had limited impacts. Finally, our synthesis of prolonged drought experiments also emphasizes the importance of the timing and frequency of precipitation events on ecosystem C cycles. Given these findings, we urge future studies to focus on manipulating the frequency, intensity, and seasonality of precipitation with an aim to improving our ability to predict and model feedback between Rs and climate change.

198 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Evidence is provided in support of the hypothesis that in continental regions summer soil moisture anomalies affect the probability of occurrence of subsequent precipitation and the possible persistence of summer droughts sustained by positive feedbacks in response to initial (spring) surface moisture anomalies.
Abstract: Summer precipitation in continental midlatitude regions is significantly contributed by local recycling, i.e., by moisture returning to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration from the same region. On the other hand, reduced soil moisture availability may limit evapotranspiration rates with effects on the planetary boundary layer dynamics through the partitioning between sensible and latent heat fluxes. Thus, a dependence may exist between precipitation and antecedent soil moisture conditions. Here we provide theoretical and experimental evidence in support of the hypothesis that in continental regions summer soil moisture anomalies affect the probability of occurrence of subsequent precipitation. Owing to these feedbacks, two preferential states may arise in summer soil moisture dynamics, which thus tend to remain locked either in a “dry” or a “wet” state, whereas intermediate conditions have low probability of occurrence. In this manner, such land–atmosphere interactions would explain the possible persistence of summer droughts sustained by positive feedbacks in response to initial (spring) surface moisture anomalies.

198 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20237,839
202214,365
20212,302
20201,964
20191,942
20181,773