Impact of increased water vapor on precipitation efficiency over northern Eurasia

Ye, Hengchun; Fetzer, Eric J.; Wong, Sun; Behrangi, Ali; Olsen, E. T.; Cohen, Judah; Lambrigtsen, Bjorn; Chen, Liming

doi:10.1002/2014gl059830

Cited by 73 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…The daily precipitation and surface air temperature records are from the Daily Temperature and Precipitation Data for 518 Russian Meteorological Stations archived at the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center [ Bulygina and Razuvaev , ; Ye et al ., ]. The water vapor variable is from the Global Synoptic Climatology Network, C: The former USSR, available from the National Climatic Data Center [ National Climatic Data Center , ; Ye and Cohen , 2013; Ye et al ., ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, atmospheric water vapor change does not always follow the C‐C relationship, especially over inland areas and/or during the warm season [ Berg et al ., ; Hardwick Jones et al ., ; Ye and Fetzer , 2010]. One of the reasons is that relative humidity is likely to decrease as air temperature becomes very high, due to the drying effect of soil moisture over land areas [ Rowel , ; Trenberth , ; Ye et al ., ]. Climate models have determined that information about boundary layer humidity is crucial for accurate forecasts of convective systems and their associated precipitation [ Ducrocq et al ., ; Fabry , ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, air temperature alone is not enough to realistically simulate weather systems and is not guaranteed to result in an accurate projection of precipitation because water vapor does not always closely follow its change in a predictable way at regional level. A recent study suggests that higher water vapor leads to more precipitation in winter but less in summer due to reduced relative humidity associated with warmer air temperature over northern Eurasia [ Ye et al ., ]. But the question of how water vapor is directly linked to precipitation intensity and frequency remains to be answered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing atmospheric water vapor and higher daily precipitation intensity over northern Eurasia

Fetzer

Wong

et al. 2015

Geophysical Research Letters

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Increasing daily precipitation intensity is strongly associated with increasing water vapor in the atmosphere over northern Eurasia based on this study of 35 years of daily precipitation, specific humidity, and air temperature observations at 152 stations. The apparently linear relationship is consistent across all four seasons at interannual and longer time scales, and holds after temperature variation have been controlled. The study further reveals that this relationship is accompanied by increases in precipitation totals from heavy events (above the 70th percentile) and decreases in light ones (below the 30th percentile). Results suggest that increased atmospheric water vapor is the direct link to more frequent intense events of precipitation and increased risk of flooding under a warming climate via increasing precipitation intensity.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing atmospheric water vapor and higher daily precipitation intensity over northern Eurasia

Fetzer

Wong

et al. 2015

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Large correlations between summer P and relative humidity (RH) revealed in this study (Table ) are generally consistent with results of Ye et al . [] for northern Eurasia which show that in summer RH is the primary contributor to P (and precipitation efficiency) in the region.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interannual variability in the summertime hydrological cycle over European regions

2016

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A variety of observations-based hydrological variables from different data sets are used to investigate interannual variability and changes in the summertime hydrological cycle over four European regions-Iberian Peninsula (IP), British Isles (BI), Central Europe (CE), and European Russia (ER). An analysis performed on seasonal means (June, July, and August) suggests that soil moisture variability is impacted almost equally by precipitation and air temperature in BI and ER regions. However, stronger links between soil moisture and precipitation are revealed for CE region and between soil moisture and air temperature for IP region. In all except IP regions summertime interannual variability of column-integrated water vapor is strongly linked to air temperature consistent with the dominating influence of the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. In BI, CE, and ER interannual variability of regional precipitation is driven by variations in atmospheric moisture transport into these regions. In IP the link between precipitation and moisture transport is relatively weak. Based on monthly data, analysis of the lag-lead correlations revealed specific regional relationships between different hydrological variables. In particular, it is shown that in some regions (and months) interannual variability of soil moisture is linked more strongly to precipitation and air temperature anomalies in the previous month, rather than in the coinciding month. An analysis of the vertical structure of regional atmospheric moisture transport has revealed that the more continental the climate of the region is, the larger deviation from the mean (i.e., climatological) profile might be observed during anomalously dry/wet summers.

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“…The signals of changes in some of these characteristics appear to be stronger and easier to detect than the signals of total precipitation. For example, studies have found that precipitation has become less frequent (Ye 2008, Ye et al 2014, Ye et al 2016a, more intense (Ye et al 2015(Ye et al , 2016a and with higher extremes (Lenderink and Majgaard 2008) over extratropical regions, including places in which annual total precipitation has not shown any significant change. Increases in precipitation intensity and extremes over northern Eurasia appear to be related to more frequent and stronger convective precipitation at the expense of non-convective precipitation (Ye et al 2016b(Ye et al , 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in duration of dry and wet spells associated with air temperatures in Russia

2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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This study uses daily precipitation records from 517 Russian stations to examine the relationships between continuous dry and wet day duration and surface air temperature for all four seasons. The study found that both mean and extreme durations of dry periods increase with air temperature at about 7.0% (0.24 day/ • C) and 7.7% (0.86 day/ • C) respectively, while those of wet periods decrease at about 1.3% (−0.02 day/ • C) and 2.2% (−0.10 day/ • C) respectively averaged over the entire study region during summer. An increase in the duration of dry periods with higher air temperature is also found in other seasons at locations with a mean seasonal air temperature of about −5 • C or higher. Opposite relationships of shorter durations of dry periods and longer wet periods associated with higher air temperature are observed over the northern part of the study region in winter. The changes in durations of both dry and wet periods have significant correlations with the changes in total dry and wet days but are about 2.5 times higher for dry periods and 0.5 times lower for wet periods. The study also found that locations with longer durations of dry periods experience faster rates of increase in air temperature, suggesting the likelihood of exacerbating drought severity in drier and/or warmer locations for all seasons.

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Impact of increased water vapor on precipitation efficiency over northern Eurasia

Cited by 73 publications

References 41 publications

Increasing atmospheric water vapor and higher daily precipitation intensity over northern Eurasia

Increasing atmospheric water vapor and higher daily precipitation intensity over northern Eurasia

Interannual variability in the summertime hydrological cycle over European regions

Changes in duration of dry and wet spells associated with air temperatures in Russia

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