HR: 15:35h
AN: H23F-08 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Role of Soil Moisture in Shaping Regional Climates
AU: * Eltahir, E A
EM: eltahir@mit.edu
AF: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, MIT, Room 48-207, Cambridge, MA 02139 United States
AB: Soil moisture conditions are known to reflect temporal and spatial variability in local and regional climatic conditions. However, during the last decade several studies suggest a new important role for soil moisture in shaping climate variability at the regional scale. This paper reviews recent results of research by the author and his group on how soil moisture conditions impact the surface radiation balance, turbulent heat fluxes, boundary layer moist static energy, and hence the energetics of convective storms. Field observations and numerical modeling results are presented to test a specific hypothesis on how soil moisture conditions may impact future rainfall. Examples will be drawn from studies on the hydroclimatology of North America and West Africa.
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting