Impact of Irrigation on Regional Climate Over Eastern China
Name
Kang_et_al-2019-Geophysical_Research_Letters-1.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.17 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6243871550b849fbf6848a7fa2f739a5
Author(s)
Kang, Suchul
Eltahir, Elfatih A. B.
Date Issued
May 2019
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
Kang, S., & Eltahir, E. A. B. "Impact of irrigation on regional climate over Eastern China." Geophysical Research Letters 46 (2019): 5499–5505. © 2019 Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Irrigated area has rapidly expanded over the North China Plain (NCP), over the second half of the twentieth century. Simultaneously, there has been an observed increase in specific humidity and precipitation and a decrease in surface temperature during summer. The impacts of irrigation on regional climate in Eastern China are investigated using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Regional Climate Model with irrigation module. The results of our experiments clearly support that surface cooling as well as enhanced precipitation are attributable to irrigation over the NCP. The irrigation-induced soil moisture change simulated over the NCP during summer resulted in cooler surface temperatures by 1~4°C over this region, which led to a reduction of the planetary boundary layer, higher surface pressure, and significant changes in low-level circulation. Our results indicate that moisture convergence is enhanced over Hebei and Henan province along the Taihang-Mountain, which generated a significant increase in precipitation by 20~40% over this region.
MIT Department
Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082396
