Abstract
Soil moisture can affect precipitation, however there is significant debate about the sign and strength of land–atmosphere coupling. This may be due to the differences regarding the selection of data sources, the presence of atmospheric persistence, and the spatial and temporal scales of the analysis. This study is a sensitivity analysis that quantifies how each of these factors influences land–atmosphere coupling in the central United States from 2005 to 2007. Four different sources of soil moisture are used to represent soil moisture: in situ measurements and three satellite products. The Thunderstorm Observation by Radar (ThOR) algorithm is used to identify convective events. The results show that warm-season afternoon convection initiates preferentially over dry soil, if in situ measurements are used. However, when satellite data are used the sign and strength of the soil moisture-precipitation coupling varies depending on which satellite dataset is used. This demonstrates that evaluations of land–atmosphere coupling strength are sensitive to the source of soil moisture. Our results also show that accounting for atmospheric persistence tends to weaken apparent land–atmosphere coupling. Changing the spatial scale of the analysis can also influence the sign and coupling strength. Analyses that are performed at a coarser spatial resolution tend to indicate a wet preference because they do not capture the local negative feedbacks. This study demonstrates that contradictions in the literature regarding the sign and strength of soil moisture-precipitation feedbacks can be partly attributed to differences in datasets, methods and scale of the analysis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Apke JM, Nietfeld D, Anderson MR (2015) Environmental analysis of GOES-R proving ground convection-initiation forecasting algorithms. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 54:1637–1662. https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-14-0190.1
Bindlish R, Jackson TJ, Wood E, Gao H, Starks P, Bosch D, Lakshmi V (2003) Soil moisture estimates from TRMM Microwave Imager observations over the Southern United States. Remote Sens Environ 85:507–515. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(03)00052-X
Brown ME, Arnold DL (1998) Land-surface–atmosphere interactions associated with deep convection in Illinois. Int J Climatol 18:1637–1653. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0088(199812)18:15%3c1637::AID-JOC336%3e3.0.CO;2-U
Crow WT et al (2012) Upscaling sparse ground-based soil moisture observations for the validation of coarse-resolution satellite soil moisture products. Rev Geophys. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000372
Crow WT, Drusch M, Wood EF (2001) An observation system simulation experiment for the impact of land surface heterogeneity on AMSR-E soil moisture retrieval. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 39:1622–1631. https://doi.org/10.1109/36.942540
Dirmeyer PA et al (2016) Confronting weather and climate models with observational data from soil moisture networks over the United States. J Hydrometeorol 17:1049–1067. https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-15-0196.1
Dixon PG, Mote TL (2003) Patterns and causes of Atlanta's urban heat island-initiated precipitation. J Appl Meteorol 42:1273–1284. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(2003)042%3c1273:pacoau%3e2.0.co;2
Dorigo WA et al (2011) The international soil moisture network: a data hosting facility for global in situ soil moisture measurements. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 15:1675–1698. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-1675-2011
Dorigo W et al (2017) ESA CCI soil moisture for improved earth system understanding: state-of-the art and future directions. Remote Sens Environ 203:185–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.07.001
Eltahir EAB (1998) A soil moisture—rainfall feedback mechanism: 1. Theory and observations. Water Resour Res 34:765–776. https://doi.org/10.1029/97wr03499
Ferguson CR, Wood EF (2011) Observed land–atmosphere coupling from satellite remote sensing and reanalysis. J Hydrometeorol 12:1221–1254. https://doi.org/10.1175/2011JHM1380.1
Findell KL, Eltahir EA (2003) Atmospheric controls on soil moisture-boundary layer interactions. Part II: feedbacks within the continental United States. J Hydrometeorol 4:570–583. https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2003)004%3c0570:ACOSML%3e2.0.CO;2
Findell KL, Gentine P, Lintner BR, Kerr C (2011) Probability of afternoon precipitation in eastern United States and Mexico enhanced by high evaporation. Nature Geosci 4:434–439. https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1174
Fischer EM, Seneviratne SI, Vidale PL, Lüthi D (2007) Soil moisture–atmosphere interactions during the 2003 european summer heat Wave. J Clim 20:5081–5099. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli4288.1
Ford TW, Quiring SM, Frauenfeld OW, Rapp AD (2015a) Synoptic conditions related to soil moisture-atmosphere interactions and unorganized convection in Oklahoma. J Geophys Res Atmos 120:11,519–511,535. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023975
Ford TW, Rapp AD, Quiring SM (2015b) Does afternoon precipitation occur preferentially over dry or wet soils in Oklahoma? J Hydrometeorol 16:874–888. https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-14-0005.1
Ford TW, Wang Q, Quiring SM (2016) The observation record length necessary to generate robust soil moisture percentiles. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 55:2131–2149. https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-16-0143.1
Ford TW et al (2018) Evaluating soil moisture–precipitation interactions using remote sensing: a sensitivity analysis. J Hydrometeorol 19:1237–1253. https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-17-0243.1
Goessling HF, Reick CH (2011) What do moisture recycling estimates tell us? Exploring the extreme case of non-evaporating continents. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 15:3217–3235. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-3217-2011
Gruber A et al. (2013) Global Automated Quality Control of In Situ Soil Moisture Data from the International Soil Moisture Network Vadose Zone Journal 12. https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2012.0097
Gruber A, Dorigo WA, Crow W, Wagner W (2017) Triple collocation-based merging of satellite soil moisture retrievals. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 55:6780–6792. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2734070
Guillod BP, Orlowsky B, Miralles DG, Teuling AJ, Seneviratne SI (2015) Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall Nature Communications 6:6443 doi:10.1038/ncomms7443. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7443#supplementary-information
Hohenegger C, Brockhaus P, Bretherton CS, Schär C (2009) The soil moisture–precipitation feedback in simulations with explicit and parametrized convection. J. Climate 22:5003–5020
Hollinger SE, Reinke BC, Peppler RA (1994) Illinois climate network: site descriptions, instrumentation, and data management, Illinois State Water Survey Circular 178. Champaign, Illinois, p 63
Houston AL, Lock NA, Lahowetz J, Barjenbruch BL, Limpert G, Oppermann C (2015) Thunderstorm Observation by Radar (ThOR): an algorithm to develop a climatology of thunderstorms. J Atmos Oceanic Technol 32:961–981. https://doi.org/10.1175/jtech-d-14-00118.1
Jing W, Song J, Zhao X (2018) A comparison of ECV and SMOS soil moisture products based on OzNet monitoring network. Remote Sens 10:703
Kang S-L, Bryan GH (2011) a large-eddy simulation study of moist convection initiation over heterogeneous surface fluxes. Mon Weather Rev 139:2901–2917. https://doi.org/10.1175/mwr-d-10-05037.1
Koster et al (2004) Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation. Science 305:1138–1140. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1100217
Kummerow C, Barnes W, Kozu T, Shiue J, Simpson J (1998) The tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) sensor package. J Atmos Oceanic Technol 15:809–817. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1998)015%3c0809:TTRMMT%3e2.0.CO;2
Lakshmi V (2013) Remote sensing of soil moisture ISRN. Soil Sci 2013:33. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/424178
Legates DR, Mahmood R, Levia DF, DeLiberty TL, Quiring SM, Houser C, Nelson FE (2011) Soil moisture: a central and unifying theme in physical geography. Progr Phys Geogr Earth Environ 35:65–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133310386514
Liu YY et al (2012) Trend-preserving blending of passive and active microwave soil moisture retrievals. Remote Sens Environ 123:280–297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.014
Lock NA, AL, Houston (2015) Spatiotemporal distribution of thunderstorm initiation in the US Great Plains from 2005 to 2007. Int J Climatol 35:4047–4056. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4261
Lock NA, Houston AL (2014) Empirical examination of the factors regulating thunderstorm initiation. Mon Weather Rev 142:240–258. https://doi.org/10.1175/mwr-d-13-00082.1
Loew A, Stacke T, Dorigo W, de Jeu R, Hagemann S (2013) Potential and limitations of multidecadal satellite soil moisture observations for selected climate model evaluation studies Hydrol Earth. Syst Sci 17:3523–3542. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3523-2013
Nasta P, Adane Z, Lock N, Houston A, Gates JB (2018) Links between episodic groundwater recharge rates and rainfall events classified according to stratiform-convective storm scoring: a plot-scale study in eastern Nebraska. Agric For Meteorol 259:154–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2018.05.003
Nicolai-Shaw N, Hirschi M, Mittelbach H, Seneviratne SI (2015) Spatial representativeness of soil moisture using in situ, remote sensing, and land reanalysis data. J Geophys Res Atmos 120:9955–9964. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023305
Njoku EG, Jackson TJ, Lakshmi V, Chan TK, Nghiem SV (2003) Soil moisture retrieval from AMSR-E. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 41:215–229. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2002.808243
Orlowsky B, Seneviratne SI (2014) On the spatial representativeness of temporal dynamics at European weather stations. Int J Climatol 34:3154–3160. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3903
Owe M, de Jeu R, Holmes T (2008) Multisensor historical climatology of satellite-derived global land surface moisture. J Geophys Res Earth Surface. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JF000769
Pal JS, Eltahir EAB (2001) Pathways relating soil moisture conditions to future summer rainfall within a model of the land–atmosphere system. J Clim 14:1227–1242. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2001)014%3c1227:prsmct%3e2.0.co;2
Quiring SM et al (2016) The North American soil moisture database: development and applications. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 97:1441–1459. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-13-00263.1
Robock A, Vinnikov KY, Schlosser CA, Speranskaya NA, Xue Y (1995) Use of midlatitude soil moisture and meteorological observations to validate soil moisture simulations with biosphere and bucket models. J Clim 8:15–35. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1995)008%3c0015:uomsma%3e2.0.co;2
Santanello JA, Peters-Lidard CD, Kennedy A, Kumar SV (2013) Diagnosing the nature of land-atmosphere coupling: a case study of dry/wet extremes in the US Southern Great Plains. J Hydrometeorol 14:3–24. https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-12-023.1
Schaefer GL, Cosh MH, Jackson TJ (2007) The USDA natural resources conservation service soil climate analysis network (SCAN). J Atmos Oceanic Technol 24:2073–2077. https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JTECHA930.1
Schroeder JL, Burgett WS, Haynie KB, Sonmez I, Skwira GD, Doggett AL, Lipe JW (2005) The West Texas mesonet: a technical overview. J Atmos Oceanic Technol 22:211–222. https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-1690.1
Schwingshackl C, Hirschi M, Seneviratne SI (2017) Quantifying spatiotemporal variations of soil moisture control on surface energy balance and near-surface air temperature. J Clim 30:7105–7124. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-16-0727.1
Scott BL, Ochsner TE, Illston BG, Fiebrich CA, Basara JB, Sutherland AJ (2013) New soil property database improves Oklahoma Mesonet soil moisture estimates. J Atmos Oceanic Technol 30:2585–2595. https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00084.1
Seneviratne SI et al. (2010) Investigating soil moisture–climate interactions in a changing climate: A review Earth-Science Reviews 99:125–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.02.004
Taylor CM, Gounou A, Guichard F, Harris PP, Ellis RJ, Couvreux F, De Kauwe M (2011) Frequency of Sahelian storm initiation enhanced over mesoscale soil-moisture patterns Nature Geoscience 4:430 doi:10.1038/ngeo1173. https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1173#supplementary-information
Taylor CM, de Jeu RAM, Guichard F, Harris PP, Dorigo WA (2012) Afternoon rain more likely over drier soils Nature 489:423 doi:10.1038/nature11377. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11377#supplementary-information
Tuttle S, Salvucci G (2016) Empirical evidence of contrasting soil moisture–precipitation feedbacks across the United States. Science 352:825–828. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa7185
Vinnikov KY, Robock A, Speranskaya NA, Schlosser CA (1996) Scales of temporal and spatial variability of midlatitude soil moisture. J Geophys Res Atmos 101:7163–7174. https://doi.org/10.1029/95JD02753
Wagner W, Naeimi V, Scipal K, de Jeu R, Martínez-Fernández J (2007) Soil moisture from operational meteorological satellites. Hydrogeol J 15:121–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-006-0104-6
Wang JK, Ford TW, Quiring SM (2015) Distinguishing between unorganized and organized convection when examining land–atmosphere relationships. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 54:2229–2243. https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-15-0086.1
Wei J, Dickinson RE, Chen H (2008) A negative soil moisture–precipitation relationship and its causes. J Hydrometeorol 9:1364–1376. https://doi.org/10.1175/2008jhm955.1
Williams E, Renno N (1993) An analysis of the conditional instability of the tropical atmosphere. Mon Weather Rev 121:21–36. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(1993)121%3c0021:aaotci%3e2.0.co;2
Yuan S, Quiring SM (2017a) Comparison of three methods of interpolating soil moisture in Oklahoma. Int J Climatol 37:987–997. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4754
Yuan S, Quiring SM (2017b) Evaluation of soil moisture in CMIP5 simulations over the contiguous United States using in situ and satellite observations. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 21:2203–2218. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-2203-2017
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NASA grant NNX16AO97G. In situ soil moisture were provided by: nationalsoilmoisture.com. The satellite soil moisture are obtained from National Snow & Ice Data Center Earth Observing System (https://nsidc.org/) and European Space Agency (esa-soilmoisture-cci.org).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yuan, S., Wang, Y., Quiring, S.M. et al. A sensitivity study on the response of convection initiation to in situ soil moisture in the central United States. Clim Dyn 54, 2013–2028 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-05098-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-05098-0