Influence of Land-Surface Evapotranspiration on the Earth's Climate

Shukla, J.; Mintz, Yale

doi:10.1126/science.215.4539.1498

Cited by 1,049 publications

(580 citation statements)

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“…Both root zone soil moisture and vegetation conditions play a vital role in the partitioning of water and energy budgets at the soilvegetation-atmosphere interface through evaporation processes of the uppermost surface soil layer and plant transpiration [Shukla and Mintz, 1982]. This partitioning, in turn, partly controls the thermodynamic and soil moisture content of the lower troposphere, and thus, climate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of leaf area index in the ECMWF land surface model and impact on latent heat and carbon fluxes: Application to West Africa

et al. 2008

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[1] A new version of the land surface model of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (Carbon-TESSEL, or CTESSEL) includes a vegetation growth model. This study describes a leaf area index (LAI) data assimilation system (LDAS) based on CTESSEL and satellite LAI for operational Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) predictions. The LDAS is evaluated over West Africa. A preliminary experiment shows a significant impact of the LAI on the CTESSEL NEE. The LAI is compared to two satellite products: the predicted annual cycle is delayed over the Sahel and savannah, and the LAI values differ from the satellite products. Preliminary to their use in the LDAS, the LAI products are rescaled to the CTESSEL predictions. The LDAS simulations are confronted to measurements of biomass and LAI for a site in Mali. The LAI analysis is shown to improve the predicted biomass and the annual cycles of the water (latent heat flux, or LE) and carbon (NEE) fluxes. Afterward, the LDAS is run over West Africa with the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer products (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005). The analysis of LAI shows a limited impact on LE, but it impacts strongly on NEE. Finally, the CTESSEL NEE are compared to two other models' outputs (simple biosphere (SIB) and Carnegie-Ames-Stanford (CASA)). The order of magnitude of the three data sets agrees well, and the shift in annual cycle of CTESSEL is reduced by the LDAS. It is concluded that a LAI data assimilation system is essential for NEE prediction at seasonal and interannual timescales, while a LAI satellite-based climatology may be sufficient for accurate LE predictions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of leaf area index in the ECMWF land surface model and impact on latent heat and carbon fluxes: Application to West Africa

et al. 2008

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“…The importance of soil water in Earth's climate system has been demonstrated using general circulation models (GCMs) and documented by numerous authors [e.g., Manabe, 1969; Shukla and Mintz, 1982;Milly and Dunne, 1994;Dirmeyer, 1995] (see also Entekhabi et al [1996] for a recent review). For example, soil water links the water, energy, and biogeochemical cycles; its high heat capacity provides thermal inertia over multiple timescales; and it fuels evapotranspiration, which helps to sustain storms through the process of precipitation recycling [Brubaker et al, 1993;Eltahir and Bras, 1996].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detectability of variations in continental water storage from satellite observations of the time dependent gravity field

Rodell¹,

Famiglietti²

1999

Water Resources Research

236

155

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Abstract. Continental water storage is a key variable in the Earth system that has never been adequately monitored globally. Since variations in water storage on land affect the time dependent component of Earth's gravity field, the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission, which will accurately map the gravity field at 2-4 week intervals, may soon provide global data on temporal changes in continental water storage. This study characterizes water storage changes in 20 drainage basins ranging in size from 130,000 to 5,782,000 km 2 and uses estimates of uncertainty in the GRACE technique to determine in which basins water storage changes may be detectable by GRACE and how this detectability may vary in space and time. Results indicate that GRACE will likely detect changes in water storage in most of the basins on monthly or longer time steps and that instrument errors, atmospheric modeling errors, and the magnitude of the variations themselves will be the primary controls on the relative accuracy of the GRACE-derived estimates. IntroductionSoil moisture, groundwater, snow and ice, lake and river water, and vegetative water are the principal components of continental (or terrestrial, total) water storage. Although it constitutes only about 3.5% of the water in the hydrologic cycle, continental water storage has a tremendous influence on climate and weather as well as being fundamental to life on Frozen water and liquid water stored below soils in aquifers play important roles in the Earth system and hold practical significance for society. Seasonal melts replenish soils and streams, while groundwater provides base flow to streams and sustains deep-rooted plants through periods of drought. Predicting the magnitudes of spring melts and the availability of groundwater is critical for natural hazard preparedness and for agricultural and domestic water resources management.Mass redistribution associated with changes in water storage on land has additional effects on the Earth system beyond those described above. For example, Chao and O'Connor [1988] and Kuehne and Wilson [1991] showed that changes in terrestrial water storage effect Earth rotation variations, and Chen et al. [1998] showed that the redistribution of water from the continents to the oceans is the primary driver of sea level ]. Estimates of the absolute magnitude of water storage would not be obtainable, and the technique would integrate changes in soil moisture, snow, groundwater, and the other components of continental water storage to produce an estimate of the net change in total continental water storage. In other words, GRACE will provide the spatial distribution of AS, the change in total water storage, during the time period A T. Note that in this paper, the terms "variations in water storage" and "changes in water storage" are used interchangeably to denote AS. This paper investigates the potential of GRACE to provide estimates of continental water storage variations by comparing simulated fields of water storage ...

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“…As reviewed by , several numerical experiments with atmospheric general circulation models have been carried out to investigate the sensitivity of the climate to the land-surface boundary conditions including soil moisture [Walker and Rowntree, 1977;Shukla and Mintz, 1982;Rind, 1982;Rowntree and Bolton, 1983;Yeh et al, 1984]. These studies demonstrated the general tendency that a wetter land surface, and therefore a larger evaporation, is accompanied by a larger precipitation over the land.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The interaction of cumulus convection with soil moisture distribution: An idealized simulation

Emori¹

1998

J. Geophys. Res.

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Abstract. In order to investigate the interaction between cumulus convection and soil moisture distribution, two-dimensional numerical experiments using a regional atmospheric model are performed. The model roughly resolves each convective cell and represents cloud processes by a microphysics parameterization. Two long-term (60-day) integrations with relatively dry and wet conditions are made with the atmosphere-land system in a quasi-equilibrium state. Though the initial and boundary conditions are horizontally homogeneous, horizontal contrasts in soil moisture spontaneously develop due to the spotty nature of convective precipitation. When intense soil moisture contrasts develop, they cause surface temperature contrasts through a change in evaporation. As a result, thermally induced local circulations occur in the daytime, with upward branches over the dry and hot regions and downward branches over the wet and cool regions. Most cumulus convection events are initiated by the upward motion of this local circulation over the dry region. They mostly occur in the afternoon (1300-1700 LT), while convection that forms over regions that are wet throughout may occur at any time during the day. The intense precipitation over the dry region "overdamps" the soil moisture contrast, which results in the maintenance of a heterogeneous distribution of soil moisture. IntroductionThe influence of land-surface processes on precipitation on both a global and local scale has been intensively discussed in recent years. As reviewed by Mintz

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Influence of Land-Surface Evapotranspiration on the Earth's Climate

Cited by 1,049 publications

References 3 publications

Analysis of leaf area index in the ECMWF land surface model and impact on latent heat and carbon fluxes: Application to West Africa

Analysis of leaf area index in the ECMWF land surface model and impact on latent heat and carbon fluxes: Application to West Africa

Detectability of variations in continental water storage from satellite observations of the time dependent gravity field

The interaction of cumulus convection with soil moisture distribution: An idealized simulation

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