Open AccessPathways between soil moisture and precipitation in southeastern South America
Author(s) -
Ruscica Romina C.,
Sörensson Anna A.,
Menéndez Claudio G.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl2.552
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , moisture , evapotranspiration , water content , atmospheric sciences , climatology , geology , geography , meteorology , ecology , geotechnical engineering , biology
Southeastern South America ( SESA ) is found to be the main hot spot of soil moisture–evapotranspiration coupling of South America during a dry summer. However, only its eastern part is a soil moisture–precipitation hot spot. Pathways between soil moisture and precipitation are evaluated through studying the coupling of soil moisture with surface and boundary layer variables. The outcome suggests that both the moist static energy and its vertical gradient are important for the development of precipitation, as a result of the total surface heat fluxes that are affected by soil moisture only in the eastern part of SESA .