Articles | Volume 24, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3857-2024
© 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-24-3857-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
28 Mar 2024
Research article |
| 28 Mar 2024
| 28 Mar 2024
Influence of lower-tropospheric moisture on local soil moisture–precipitation feedback over the US Southern Great Plains
Gaoyun Wang
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The High School Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
Rong Fu
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Paul A. Dirmeyer
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
Joseph A. Santanello
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Guiling Wang
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Kaighin McColl
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Siyu Zhao, Rong Fu, Kelly Núñez Ocasio, Robert Nystrom, Cenlin He, and Jiaying Zhang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3591, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3591, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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The Congo Basin has frequent organized thunderstorms producing much of the region’s rainfall, yet their development remains unclear due to limited data. Using a high-resolution global model, it shows the long-lasting storm is supported by vertical wind shear up to 400 km ahead, explaining up to 65 % of its variance, with the mid-level jet stream playing a role in maintaining the shear. The findings highlight the value of such model in data-sparse regions for examining storms and their impacts.
Yuna Lim, Andrea M. Molod, Randal D. Koster, and Joseph A. Santanello
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 3435–3445, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3435-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3435-2025, 2025
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To better utilize a given set of predictions, identifying “forecasts of opportunity” is valuable as this helps anticipate when prediction skill will be higher. This study shows that when strong land–atmosphere (L–A) coupling is detected 3–4 weeks into a forecast, the surface air temperature prediction skill at this lead time increases across the Midwest and northern Great Plains. Regions experiencing strong L–A coupling exhibit warm and dry anomalies, enhancing predictions of abnormally warm events.
Jiamin Wang, Kun Yang, Jiarui Liu, Xu Zhou, Xiaogang Ma, Wenjun Tang, Ling Yuan, and Zuhuan Ren
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1513, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1513, 2025
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Aerodynamic roughness length (z0) is a key parameter determining wind profiles in models, but most models neglect the urban effects. We proposed a low-cost method to estimate z0 at weather stations in built-up areas across China, and then developed a z0 dataset. Tests in the Weather Research and Forecasting model show that it significantly improves the simulation accuracy of wind speed at both 10-m and 100-m heights, supporting urban planning, air quality management, and wind energy projects.
Manisha Ganeshan, Dong L. Wu, Joseph A. Santanello, Jie Gong, Chi Ao, Panagiotis Vergados, and Kevin J. Nelson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1389–1403, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1389-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1389-2025, 2025
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This study explores the potential of two newly launched commercial Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) satellite missions for advancing Arctic lower-atmospheric studies. The products have a good sampling of the lower Arctic atmosphere and are useful to derive the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height during winter months. This research is a step towards closing the observation gap in polar regions due to the decomissioning of Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC-1) GNSS RO mission and the lack of high-latitude coverage by its successor (COSMIC-2).
Payal R. Makhasana, Joseph A. Santanello, Patricia M. Lawston-Parker, and Joshua K. Roundy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5087–5106, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5087-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5087-2024, 2024
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This study examines how soil moisture impacts land–atmosphere interactions, crucial for understanding Earth's water and energy cycles. The study used two different soil moisture datasets from the SMAP satellite to measure how strongly soil moisture influences the atmosphere's ability to retain moisture (called coupling strength). Leveraging SMAP soil moisture data and integrating multiple atmospheric datasets, the study offers new insights into the dynamics of land–atmosphere coupling strength.
Xu Zhou, Binbin Wang, Xiaogang Ma, Zhu La, and Kun Yang
The Cryosphere, 18, 4589–4605, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4589-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4589-2024, 2024
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The simulation of the ice phenology of Nam Co by WRF is investigated. Compared with the default model, improving the key lake schemes, such as water surface roughness length for heat fluxes and the shortwave radiation transfer for lake ice, can better simulate the lake ice phenology. The still existing errors in the spatial patterns of lake ice phenology imply that challenges still exist in modelling key lake and non-lake physics such as grid-scale water circulation and snow-related processes.
Eunkyo Seo and Paul A. Dirmeyer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1066, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1066, 2024
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This study examines the impact of using a multi-layer snow scheme in seasonal forecasts. Compared to single-layer schemes, multi-layer schemes better represent snow's insulating effect, improving forecast accuracy for temperature, soil moisture, and precipitation. These enhancements lead to more realistic simulations of land-atmosphere interactions, mitigating biases and improving model performance over mid- and high-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Kirsten L. Findell, Zun Yin, Eunkyo Seo, Paul A. Dirmeyer, Nathan P. Arnold, Nathaniel Chaney, Megan D. Fowler, Meng Huang, David M. Lawrence, Po-Lun Ma, and Joseph A. Santanello Jr.
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1869–1883, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1869-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1869-2024, 2024
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We outline a request for sub-daily data to accurately capture the process-level connections between land states, surface fluxes, and the boundary layer response. This high-frequency model output will allow for more direct comparison with observational field campaigns on process-relevant timescales, enable demonstration of inter-model spread in land–atmosphere coupling processes, and aid in targeted identification of sources of deficiencies and opportunities for improvement of the models.
Yizhou Zhuang and Rong Fu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1641–1657, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1641-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1641-2024, 2024
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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.
Wenjun Tang, Junmei He, Jingwen Qi, and Kun Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 4537–4551, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4537-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4537-2023, 2023
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In this study, we have developed a dense station-based, long-term dataset of daily surface solar radiation in China with high accuracy. The dataset consists of estimates of global, direct and diffuse radiation at 2473 meteorological stations from the 1950s to 2021. Validation indicates that our station-based radiation dataset clearly outperforms the satellite-based radiation products. Our dataset will contribute to climate change research and solar energy applications in the future.
Patricia Lawston-Parker, Joseph A. Santanello Jr., and Nathaniel W. Chaney
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2787–2805, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2787-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2787-2023, 2023
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Irrigation has been shown to impact weather and climate, but it has only recently been considered in prediction models. Prescribing where (globally) irrigation takes place is important to accurately simulate its impacts on temperature, humidity, and precipitation. Here, we evaluated three different irrigation maps in a weather model and found that the extent and intensity of irrigated areas and their boundaries are important drivers of weather impacts resulting from human practices.
Zun Yin, Kirsten L. Findell, Paul Dirmeyer, Elena Shevliakova, Sergey Malyshev, Khaled Ghannam, Nina Raoult, and Zhihong Tan
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 861–872, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-861-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-861-2023, 2023
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Land–atmosphere (L–A) interactions typically focus on daytime processes connecting the land state with the overlying atmospheric boundary layer. However, much prior L–A work used monthly or daily means due to the lack of daytime-only data products. Here we show that monthly smoothing can significantly obscure the L–A coupling signal, and including nighttime information can mute or mask the daytime processes of interest. We propose diagnosing L–A coupling within models or archiving subdaily data.
Yaozhi Jiang, Kun Yang, Youcun Qi, Xu Zhou, Jie He, Hui Lu, Xin Li, Yingying Chen, Xiaodong Li, Bingrong Zhou, Ali Mamtimin, Changkun Shao, Xiaogang Ma, Jiaxin Tian, and Jianhong Zhou
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 621–638, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-621-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-621-2023, 2023
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Our work produces a long-term (1979–2020) high-resolution (1/30°, daily) precipitation dataset for the Third Pole (TP) region by merging an advanced atmospheric simulation with high-density rain gauge (more than 9000) observations. Validation shows that the produced dataset performs better than the currently widely used precipitation datasets in the TP. This dataset can be used for hydrological, meteorological and ecological studies in the TP.
Eunkyo Seo and Paul A. Dirmeyer
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 5411–5429, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5411-2022, 2022
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This study presents the climatology of the observed land–atmosphere interactions on a subdaily timescale during the warm season from flux site observations. Multivariate metrics are employed to examine the land, atmosphere, and combined couplings, and a mixing diagram is adopted to understand the coevolution of the moist and thermal energy budget within the atmospheric mixed layer. The diurnal cycles of both mixing diagrams and hourly land–atmosphere couplings exhibit hysteresis.
Yaozhi Jiang, Kun Yang, Hua Yang, Hui Lu, Yingying Chen, Xu Zhou, Jing Sun, Yuan Yang, and Yan Wang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 4587–4601, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4587-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4587-2022, 2022
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Our study quantified the altitudinal precipitation gradients (PGs) over the Third Pole (TP). Most sub-basins in the TP have positive PGs, and negative PGs are found in the Himalayas, the Hengduan Mountains and the western Kunlun. PGs are positively correlated with wind speed but negatively correlated with relative humidity. In addition, PGs tend to be positive at smaller spatial scales compared to those at larger scales. The findings can assist precipitation interpolation in the data-sparse TP.
Wenjun Tang, Jun Qin, Kun Yang, Yaozhi Jiang, and Weihao Pan
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2007–2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2007-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2007-2022, 2022
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Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is a fundamental physiological variable for research in the ecological, agricultural, and global change fields. In this study, we produced a 35-year high-resolution global gridded PAR dataset. Compared with the well-known global satellite-based PAR product of the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), our PAR product was found to be a more accurate dataset with higher resolution.
Jianping Guo, Jian Zhang, Kun Yang, Hong Liao, Shaodong Zhang, Kaiming Huang, Yanmin Lv, Jia Shao, Tao Yu, Bing Tong, Jian Li, Tianning Su, Steve H. L. Yim, Ad Stoffelen, Panmao Zhai, and Xiaofeng Xu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17079–17097, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17079-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17079-2021, 2021
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The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest part of the troposphere, and boundary layer height (BLH) is the depth of the PBL and is of critical importance to the dispersion of air pollution. The study presents the first near-global BLH climatology by using high-resolution (5-10 m) radiosonde measurements. The variations in BLH exhibit large spatial and temporal dependence, with a peak at 17:00 local solar time. The most promising reanalysis product is ERA-5 in terms of modeling BLH.
Sudip Chakraborty, Jonathon H. Jiang, Hui Su, and Rong Fu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12855–12866, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12855-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12855-2021, 2021
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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.
Yongkang Xue, Tandong Yao, Aaron A. Boone, Ismaila Diallo, Ye Liu, Xubin Zeng, William K. M. Lau, Shiori Sugimoto, Qi Tang, Xiaoduo Pan, Peter J. van Oevelen, Daniel Klocke, Myung-Seo Koo, Tomonori Sato, Zhaohui Lin, Yuhei Takaya, Constantin Ardilouze, Stefano Materia, Subodh K. Saha, Retish Senan, Tetsu Nakamura, Hailan Wang, Jing Yang, Hongliang Zhang, Mei Zhao, Xin-Zhong Liang, J. David Neelin, Frederic Vitart, Xin Li, Ping Zhao, Chunxiang Shi, Weidong Guo, Jianping Tang, Miao Yu, Yun Qian, Samuel S. P. Shen, Yang Zhang, Kun Yang, Ruby Leung, Yuan Qiu, Daniele Peano, Xin Qi, Yanling Zhan, Michael A. Brunke, Sin Chan Chou, Michael Ek, Tianyi Fan, Hong Guan, Hai Lin, Shunlin Liang, Helin Wei, Shaocheng Xie, Haoran Xu, Weiping Li, Xueli Shi, Paulo Nobre, Yan Pan, Yi Qin, Jeff Dozier, Craig R. Ferguson, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Qing Bao, Jinming Feng, Jinkyu Hong, Songyou Hong, Huilin Huang, Duoying Ji, Zhenming Ji, Shichang Kang, Yanluan Lin, Weiguang Liu, Ryan Muncaster, Patricia de Rosnay, Hiroshi G. Takahashi, Guiling Wang, Shuyu Wang, Weicai Wang, Xu Zhou, and Yuejian Zhu
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 4465–4494, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4465-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4465-2021, 2021
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The subseasonal prediction of extreme hydroclimate events such as droughts/floods has remained stubbornly low for years. This paper presents a new international initiative which, for the first time, introduces spring land surface temperature anomalies over high mountains to improve precipitation prediction through remote effects of land–atmosphere interactions. More than 40 institutions worldwide are participating in this effort. The experimental protocol and preliminary results are presented.
Andrew Tangborn, Belay Demoz, Brian J. Carroll, Joseph Santanello, and Jeffrey L. Anderson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1099–1110, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1099-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1099-2021, 2021
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Accurate prediction of the planetary boundary layer is essential to both numerical weather prediction (NWP) and pollution forecasting. This paper presents a methodology to combine these measurements with the models through a statistical data assimilation approach that calculates the correlation between the PBLH and variables like temperature and moisture in the model. The model estimates of these variables can be improved via this method, and this will enable increased forecast accuracy.
Yanbin Lei, Tandong Yao, Lide Tian, Yongwei Sheng, Lazhu, Jingjuan Liao, Huabiao Zhao, Wei Yang, Kun Yang, Etienne Berthier, Fanny Brun, Yang Gao, Meilin Zhu, and Guangjian Wu
The Cryosphere, 15, 199–214, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-199-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-199-2021, 2021
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Two glaciers in the Aru range, western Tibetan Plateau (TP), collapsed suddenly on 17 July and 21 September 2016, respectively, causing fatal damage to local people and their livestock. The impact of the glacier collapses on the two downstream lakes (i.e., Aru Co and Memar Co) is investigated in terms of lake morphology, water level and water temperature. Our results provide a baseline in understanding the future lake response to glacier melting on the TP under a warming climate.
Hui Lu, Donghai Zheng, Kun Yang, and Fan Yang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5745–5758, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5745-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5745-2020, 2020
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The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as the Asian water tower, plays an important role in the regional climate system, while the land surface process is a key component through which the TP impacts the water and energy cycles. In this paper, we reviewed the progress achieved in the last decade in understanding and modeling the land surface processes on the TP. Based on this review, perspectives on the further improvement of land surface modelling on the TP are also provided.
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Short summary
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.
This study investigates the influence of lower-tropospheric humidity on land–atmosphere coupling...
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