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Short-Term and Long-Term Surface Soil Moisture Memory Time Scales Are Spatially Anticorrelated at Global Scales

Author(s)
McColl, Kaighin A.; He, Qing; Lu, Hui; Entekhabi, Dara
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Abstract
Land-atmosphere feedbacks occurring on daily to weekly time scales can magnify the intensity and duration of extreme weather events, such as droughts, heat waves, and convective storms. For such feedbacks to occur, the coupled land-atmosphere system must exhibit sufficient memory of soil moisture anomalies associated with the extreme event. The soil moisture autocorrelation e-folding time scale has been used previously to estimate soil moisture memory. However, the theoretical basis for this metric (i.e., that the land water budget is reasonably approximated by a red noise process) does not apply at finer spatial and temporal resolutions relevant tomodern satellite observations and models. In this study, two memory time scale metrics are introduced that are relevant to modern satellite observations andmodels: the ''long-termmemory'' τL and the ''short-term memory'' τS. Short- and long-term surface soil moisture (SSM) memory time scales are spatially anticorrelated at global scales in both a model and satellite observations, suggesting hot spots of land-atmosphere couplingwill be located in different regions, depending on the time scale of the feedback. Furthermore, the spatial anticorrelation between τS and τL demonstrates the importance of characterizing these memory time scales separately, rather than mixing them as in previous studies. Keywords: Atmosphere-land interaction; Biosphere-atmosphere interaction; Hydrologic cycle; Hydrology; Hydrometeorology; Soil moisture
Date issued
2019-06
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125719
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Journal
Journal of Hydrometeorology
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Citation
McColl, Kaighin A., et al. "Short-Term and Long-Term Surface Soil Moisture Memory Time Scales Are Spatially Anticorrelated at Global Scales." Journal of Hydrometeorology, 20, 6 (June 2010). © 2019 American Meteorological Society.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1525-755X
1525-7541

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