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Recent advances associated with large scale field experiments in hydrology
Author(s) -
Kustas William P.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
reviews of geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 8.087
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1944-9208
pISSN - 8755-1209
DOI - 10.1029/95rg00395
Subject(s) - environmental science , water cycle , climatology , climate model , latent heat , atmosphere (unit) , water balance , climate change , atmospheric circulation , energy balance , atmospheric sciences , gcm transcription factors , general circulation model , evaporation , meteorology , geology , geography , ecology , oceanography , geotechnical engineering , biology
Recent efforts have concentrated on developing models that couple the hydrologic cycle with climate because evaporated water (latent heat flux) from the land surface and oceans has a significant impact in regulating the energy balance of the atmosphere, which in turn feedbacks to drive atmospheric circulation and weather. The coupling of the hydrologic cycle and climate occurs at different tune and spatial scales and is not well understood. For example, evaporation from the land‐surface and atmospheric boundary layer development interact at time scales or hours whereas changes in root zone soil moisture and synoptic weather patterns occur over time scales of days to weeks. Moreover, it is difficult to validate model simulations at regional and certainly at the global circulation model (GCM) scale. On the other hand, it is imperative that we validate GCM output because unless these models can reliably simulate the observed water and energy cycles in the present climate, future predictions of climate change are rather tenuous (Kinter and Shukla, 1990).