HR: 0830h
AN: A41A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: The Impact of Soil Moisture Initialization on Seasonal Precipitation in the West African Sahel Using the Regional Spectral Model
AU: * Sealy, A M
EM: asealy@howard.edu
AF: Howard University, 2355 6th St NW, Washington, DC 20059 United States
AU: Joseph, E
EM: ejoseph@howard.edu
AF: Howard University, 2355 6th St NW, Washington, DC 20059 United States
AU: Lu, C
EM: sarah.lu@noaa.gov
AF: RSIS and NOAA/NWS/NCEP, 5200 Auth Rd, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AU: Juang, H H
EM: henry.juang@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/NCEP, 5200 Auth Rd, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AB: This study investigates the extent to which prior knowledge of soil moisture states can influence seasonal precipitation predictability in the West African Sahel. This region has been characterized as a semi-arid region which is the transition zone that model studies have suggested that the impact of land state initialization on precipitation predictability may be most significant. Results will be presented from (1)an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of neutral years from 1981-2004 of May/June monthly Reanalysis-2 soil moisture data to identify the leading modes of soil moisture variability in the region and (2) a sensitivity analysis that consists of a seasonal integration (May-September) initialized with soil moisture patterns that are characteristic of the first two leading modes of soil moisture variability.
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions
DE: 3354 Precipitation (1854)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly