Evolution of Soil Moisture-Convection Interactions against the Backdrop of Global Oscillations

Abstract:

Interannual changes in how soil moisture can trigger convection are explored within the context of known global-scale oscillations, such as ENSO. Because soil moisture-convection interactions are a local phenomenon that require a sufficiently moist and unstable atmosphere to initiate convection, any systematic changes to water vapor produced by these global circulation changes may manifest in disrupting or promoting the soil moisture-precipitation feedback chain. Using a new framework, the Heated Condensation Framework (HCF; Tawfik and Dirmeyer 2014), local land-atmosphere coupling can be examined by separating the atmospheric background state from the land surface state in terms of convective initiation. The current work explores how the soil moisture-convection relationship changes from year-to-year and during influential El Nino and La Nina events. This is done using several global and regional reanalysis products, as well as observations where available.