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Covariabilities of spring soil moisture and summertime United States precipitation in a climate simulation
Author(s) -
Wu Wanru,
Dickinson Robert E.,
Wang Hui,
Liu Yongqiang,
Shaikh Muhammad
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/joc.1419
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , moisture , climatology , water content , relative humidity , spring (device) , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geography , geology , mechanical engineering , geotechnical engineering , engineering
This paper explores the space‐time connections between springtime soil moisture and summer precipitation over the continental United States by applying a singular value decomposition (SVD) method to a 50‐year climate simulation. The first two SVD modes were analyzed. The two leading SVD modes account for 43% of the squared covariance between spring soil moisture and summer precipitation. Their corresponding components explain 14% of the soil moisture variance and 19% of the precipitation variance, respectively, which is larger than that contributed by tropical Pacific sea‐surface temperatures (SSTs). The temporal correlations between the two expansion coefficients of each SVD mode are 0.83 and 0.88, respectively, indicating a significant association between spring soil moisture variation and summer precipitation variability. Both positive and negative cross‐correlations exist over different regions of the United States in the two modes. Linear regression relates surface relative humidity and surface air temperature to the soil moisture SVD time series. The patterns revealed by the SVD analysis show where the local soil moisture‐precipitation coupling contributes to the model's simulation of precipitation. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society