Articles | Volume 24, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1641-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1641-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Quantifying the contribution of atmospheric circulation to precipitation variability and changes in the US Great Plains and southwest using self-organizing map–analogue
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Rong Fu
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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This study investigates the influence of lower-tropospheric humidity on land–atmosphere coupling (LAC) during warm seasons in the US Southern Great Plains. Using radiosonde data and a buoyancy model, we find that elevated LT humidity is crucial for generating afternoon precipitation events under dry soil conditions not accounted for by conventional LAC indices. This underscores the importance of considering LT humidity in understanding LAC over dry soil during droughts in the SGP.
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This study investigates the influence of lower-tropospheric humidity on land–atmosphere coupling (LAC) during warm seasons in the US Southern Great Plains. Using radiosonde data and a buoyancy model, we find that elevated LT humidity is crucial for generating afternoon precipitation events under dry soil conditions not accounted for by conventional LAC indices. This underscores the importance of considering LT humidity in understanding LAC over dry soil during droughts in the SGP.
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Boreal autumn is the main wet season over the Congo basin. Thus, changes in its onset date have a significant impact on the rainforest. This study provides compelling evidence that the cooling effect of aerosols modifies the timing and strength of the southern African easterly jet that is central to the boreal autumn wet season over the Congo rainforest. A higher boreal summer aerosol concentration is positively correlated with the boreal autumn wet season onset timing.
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An eastward advection of dry and warm air in spring was identified as a major drought onset mechanism over the US Great Plains (GP). Further breakdown of the zonal advection into the dynamic versus thermodynamic contributions revealed dominance of the latter in the tropospheric drying observed during the onset of GP 2011 and 2012 droughts. The dependence of thermodynamic advection on moisture gradient links the spring precipitation in the Rockies and US southwest to the GP summer precipitation.
Pierre Gentine, Adam Massmann, Benjamin R. Lintner, Sayed Hamed Alemohammad, Rong Fu, Julia K. Green, Daniel Kennedy, and Jordi Vilà-Guerau de Arellano
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Land–atmosphere interactions are key for the exchange of water, energy, and carbon dioxide, especially in the tropics. We here review some of the recent findings on land–atmosphere interactions in the tropics and where we see potential challenges and paths forward.
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The interactions between aerosols and ice clouds represent one of the largest uncertainties among anthropogenic forcings on climate change. We find that the responses of ice crystal effective radius, a key parameter determining ice clouds' net radiative effect, to aerosol loadings are modulated by water vapor amount and vary from a significant negative correlation in moist conditions (consistent with the “Twomey effect” for liquid clouds) to a strong positive correlation in dry conditions.
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The onset and demise of the rainy season in Amazonia are assessed in this study using meteorological data from the GoAmazon experiment for the 2014–15 rainy season. The onset of the rainy season was strongly associated with changes in large-scale circulation in the region, and our analyses using regional thermodynamic indices suggest that local changes such the regional thermodynamic characteristics may have been less important on the occurrence of the onset compared to large-scale circulation.
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Subject: Dynamics | Research Activity: Machine Learning | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
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Short summary
This study investigated how atmospheric circulation affects precipitation variability and changes in the US Great Plains (GP) and southwest (SW). By developing a new method called self organizing map–analogue, we found that circulation significantly influences short-term precipitation variability, accounting for 54 %–61 % of the total variance. Furthermore, circulation contributes considerably to the multi-decadal changes in precipitation and its extremes, especially for the southern GP and SW.
This study investigated how atmospheric circulation affects precipitation variability and...
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