Taylor, CM, Birch, CE, Parker, DJ et al. (4 more authors) (2013) Modeling soil moisture-precipitation feedback in the Sahel: Importance of spatial scale versus convective parameterization. Geophysical Research Letters, 40 (23). 6213 - 6218. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
Feedback between soil moisture and precipitation influence climate variability in semiarid regions. However, serious concerns exist about the ability of coarse-scale global atmospheric models to depict one key aspect of the feedback loop, namely the sensitivity of daytime convection to soil moisture. Here we compare regional simulations using a single model, run at different spatial resolutions, and with convective parameterizations switched on or off against Sahelian observations. Convection-permitting simulations at 4 and 12 km capture the observed relationships between soil moisture and convective triggering, emphasizing the importance of surface-driven mesoscale dynamics. However, with the inclusion of the convection scheme at 12 km, the behavior of the model fundamentally alters, switching from negative to positive feedback. Similar positive feedback is found in 9 out of 10 Regional Climate Models run at 50 km. These results raise questions about the accuracy of the feedback in regional models based on current convective parameterizations.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©2013 The Authors. Geophysical Research Letters published by Wiley on behalf of the American Geophysical Union. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
Keywords: | land-atmosphere feedback; Sahel; soil moisture; convective initiation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Nov 2015 14:18 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 21:47 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058511 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/2013GL058511 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:85898 |