Identification

Title

Impacts of large-scale soil moisture anomalies on the hydroclimate of southeastern South America

Abstract

The La Plata basin (LPB), located in southeastern South America (SESA), is a region of significant socioeconomic importance, particularly for agriculture. This area of South America exhibits strong land-atmosphere coupling in the warm season. In this work, we evaluate the impact of large-scale soil moisture (SM) anomalies on regional-scale atmospheric conditions. Multivariate empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis is used to extract the dominant modes of joint variability of monthly averaged root-zone SM and 1-month-lagged precipitation from atmospheric reanalyses. We find that the dominant EOF pattern is consistent with a positive correlation between antecedent SM and precipitation, while the second dominant EOF pattern is consistent with a negative correlation between these variables. To evaluate causality, the effects of large-scale SM anomalies on atmospheric variables are examined using the Community Earth System Model (CESM). CESM simulations suggest that anomalously dry SM is initially collocated with decreased precipitation. Subsequent changes in the atmospheric circulation associated with a thermal low draw moisture into the region, eventually promoting increased precipitation. This study investigates the pathways through which SM anomalies modulate precipitation in this region. For this reason, this study has potential atmospheric prediction applications that could benefit the population and the socioeconomic well-being of this important region.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7st7t78

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2021-03-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact