Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate Models

Abstract Soil moisture‐precipitation feedbacks in a large ensemble of global climate model simulations are evaluated. A set of three metrics are used to assess the sensitivity of afternoon rainfall occurrence to morning soil moisture in terms of their spatial, temporal, and heterogeneity characteris...

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Main Authors: Heewon Moon, Benoit P. Guillod, Lukas Gudmundsson, Sonia I. Seneviratne
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2019-02-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080879
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author Heewon Moon
Benoit P. Guillod
Lukas Gudmundsson
Sonia I. Seneviratne
author_facet Heewon Moon
Benoit P. Guillod
Lukas Gudmundsson
Sonia I. Seneviratne
author_sort Heewon Moon
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Soil moisture‐precipitation feedbacks in a large ensemble of global climate model simulations are evaluated. A set of three metrics are used to assess the sensitivity of afternoon rainfall occurrence to morning soil moisture in terms of their spatial, temporal, and heterogeneity characteristics. Positive (negative) spatial feedback indicates that the afternoon rainfall occurs more frequently over wetter (drier) land surface than its surroundings. Positive (negative) temporal feedback indicates preference over temporally wetter (drier) conditions, and positive (negative) heterogeneity feedback indicates preference over more spatially heterogeneous (homogeneous) soil moisture conditions. We confirm previous results highlighting a dominantly positive spatial feedback in the models as opposed to observations. On average, models tend to agree better with observations for temporal and heterogeneity feedback characteristics, although intermodel variability is largest for these metrics. The collective influence of the three feedbacks suggests that they may lead to more localized precipitation persistence in models than in observations.
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series Geophysical Research Letters
spelling doaj-art-e7cf6f7d0c7c48a68ff5a5d9e1d6759c2025-08-20T03:49:45ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072019-02-014631861186910.1029/2018GL080879Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate ModelsHeewon Moon0Benoit P. Guillod1Lukas Gudmundsson2Sonia I. Seneviratne3Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandInstitute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandInstitute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandInstitute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandAbstract Soil moisture‐precipitation feedbacks in a large ensemble of global climate model simulations are evaluated. A set of three metrics are used to assess the sensitivity of afternoon rainfall occurrence to morning soil moisture in terms of their spatial, temporal, and heterogeneity characteristics. Positive (negative) spatial feedback indicates that the afternoon rainfall occurs more frequently over wetter (drier) land surface than its surroundings. Positive (negative) temporal feedback indicates preference over temporally wetter (drier) conditions, and positive (negative) heterogeneity feedback indicates preference over more spatially heterogeneous (homogeneous) soil moisture conditions. We confirm previous results highlighting a dominantly positive spatial feedback in the models as opposed to observations. On average, models tend to agree better with observations for temporal and heterogeneity feedback characteristics, although intermodel variability is largest for these metrics. The collective influence of the three feedbacks suggests that they may lead to more localized precipitation persistence in models than in observations.https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080879soil moisture‐precipitation feedbackglobal climate modelssubdaily precipitation
spellingShingle Heewon Moon
Benoit P. Guillod
Lukas Gudmundsson
Sonia I. Seneviratne
Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate Models
Geophysical Research Letters
soil moisture‐precipitation feedback
global climate models
subdaily precipitation
title Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate Models
title_full Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate Models
title_fullStr Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate Models
title_full_unstemmed Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate Models
title_short Soil Moisture Effects on Afternoon Precipitation Occurrence in Current Climate Models
title_sort soil moisture effects on afternoon precipitation occurrence in current climate models
topic soil moisture‐precipitation feedback
global climate models
subdaily precipitation
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080879
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AT benoitpguillod soilmoistureeffectsonafternoonprecipitationoccurrenceincurrentclimatemodels
AT lukasgudmundsson soilmoistureeffectsonafternoonprecipitationoccurrenceincurrentclimatemodels
AT soniaiseneviratne soilmoistureeffectsonafternoonprecipitationoccurrenceincurrentclimatemodels