Open AccessGlobal patterns of relations between soil moisture and rainfall occurrence in ERA‐40
Author(s) -
Lam Arien,
Bierkens Marc F. P.,
van den Hurk Bart J. J. M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2006jd008222
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , climatology , subtropics , orographic lift , tropics , water cycle , water content , monsoon , moisture , atmospheric sciences , annual cycle , geology , geography , meteorology , ecology , biology , geotechnical engineering
We use a generalized linear model to statistically analyze the probability of daily precipitation occurrence, dependent on precipitation persistence, annual cycle, and soil moisture. By applying this method to the global ERA‐40 re‐analysis data set, we reveal patterns of the precipitation occurrence variability as explained by each of the three variables and their interactions. These global patterns show: (1) known monsoon regions dominate the annual cycle component; (2) known regions of orographic uplifting dominate the persistence component; (3) the soil moisture component shows structure across all continents, but is most pronounced in the tropics and subtropics, and least pronounced in polar regions. In a surprisingly large part of the land surface, soil moisture influence on precipitation occurrence is of the same order of magnitude as the influence of the annual cycle.