We investigate the response of convection to idealized perturbations in the thermodynamic environment in simulations which parameterize the large-scale circulations using the weak temperature gradient (WTG) approximation. The perturbations include a combination of modifying the environmental moisture and atmospheric stability via imposing anomalies in reference moisture and temperature profiles...

The cosmic-ray method for measuring soil moisture, used in the Cosmic-Ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS), relies on the exceptional ability of hydrogen to moderate fast neutrons. Sources of hydrogen near the ground, other than soil moisture, affect the neutron measurement and therefore must be quantified. This study investigates the effect of atmospheric water vapor on the cosmic-ray p...

[1] A one‐dimensional representation of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) depth is coupled to a soil moisture bucket model to dynamically explore the relative roles of surface and free atmospheric conditions on convective precipitation occurrence and resulting soil moisture states. This occurrence is taken to depend on the crossing of the ABL height and the lifting condensation level in the ...

1875-9637/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.aeolia.2009.07.002 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 208 220 6571; fax E-mail addresses: [email protected], jbsankey@hotm [email protected] (M.J. Germino), [email protected] (N.F. G 1 Tel.: +1 208 282 3285; fax: +1 208 282 4570. 2 Tel.: +1 208 345 1994; fax: +1 208 345 8353. Aeolian transport is an important contemporary geomorphic process ...

Using a stochastic differential equation (SDE) approach, we examine the dynamics of the continental-scale water balance in the central United States. Whitenoise and colored-noise versions of the model are developed based on analysis of atmospheric data from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis project and long-term records of precipitation and soil moisture. Improv...

[1] The most important sources of atmospheric moisture at the global scale are herein identified, both oceanic and terrestrial, and a characterization is made of how continental regions are influenced by water from different moisture source regions. The methods used to establish source-sink relationships of atmospheric water vapor are reviewed, and the advantages and caveats associated with eac...

Soil moisture supply and atmospheric demand for water independently limit—and profoundly a ect—vegetation productivity and water use during periods of hydrologic stress1–4. Disentangling the impact of these two drivers on ecosystem carbon and water cycling is di cult because they are often correlated, and experimental tools for manipulating atmospheric demand in the field are lacking. Consequen...

[1] The North American monsoon is a key feature affecting summer climate over Southwestern North America. During the monsoon, evapotranspiration from the Southwest promotes transference of water to the atmosphere which is subsequently distributed across the continent linking the SW to other regions via atmospheric hydrologic connectivity. However, the degree to which atmospheric connectivity re...

Ž . The land-surface flux model PROGSURF designed jointly at the Universities of Vienna and Budapest is reviewed; it belongs to the broad spectrum of PILPS 1 models. PROGSURF comprises one vegetation layer and three soil layers. Temperature prediction is made by the heat conduction equation in conjunction with the force-restore method. Turbulent heat fluxes are parameterized by gradient laws us...

Soil moisture predictability and the associated predictability of continental climate are explored as an initialvalue problem, using a coupled land–atmosphere model with prescribed ocean surface temperatures. Ensemble simulations are designed to assess the extent to which initial soil moisture fields explain variance of future predictands (soil moisture, near-surface air temperature, and precip...