U.S. flag An official website of the United States government.
Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

i

Observed Land Surface Influence on Atmospheric Heat and Moisture Profiles During Interstorms



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Water Resources Research
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
  • Description:
    Land‐atmospheric (L‐A) feedbacks have historically been studied using models whose structure and parameterizations influence outcomes and insights. The representation of L‐A feedbacks based on observations alone remains an ongoing challenge for understanding boundary layer development and precipitation. To address this gap, we use ground‐based passive remote sensing and in‐situ observations to present an analysis of the atmosphere during 103 interstorm soil moisture drydown events spanning nine warm seasons (2016-2024) in the U.S. Southern Great Plains region. By separating events based on local L‐A coupling signals and characterizing the profiles of atmospheric heat and moisture to surface energy flux behavior, we investigate the physical mechanisms linking land surface processes to boundary layer development. We find that during interstorm drydowns, the atmospheric column follows a consistent pattern: moisture increases within the boundary layer, peaks near its top, and declines rapidly above, while warming occurs through the depth. Drydowns that shift toward evaporation produce stronger and deeper thermodynamic responses than cases dominated by sensible heating, which are weaker and shallower. Additionally, moisture is accumulated faster within the boundary layer during shorter drydowns, with longer drydowns representing slower, moisture‐limited growth. Drydowns with wetter initial soil moisture will sustain stronger moistening within and above the boundary layer, accelerating buoyancy growth and convective potential toward the next storm. These results provide observational evidence linking surface flux evolution to boundary layer thermodynamics and offer a process‐level benchmark for evaluating coupled L‐A representations in models and demonstrating the influence of soil moisture on short‐term weather forecasting skill.
  • Source:
    Water Resources Research, 62(7)
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    0043-1397 ; 1944-7973
  • Format:
    PDF
  • Publisher:
    American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • License:
  • Rights Information:
    CC BY
  • Compliance:
    Submitted
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:6e7712e608671d0dab25bc74ad7674d2299c423063f4afccc1f3dc3292ac6d4ec67e4d7366d153a494f418e261c73fdf2acf74b51ca70ad314d575575005dc8f
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 3.27 MB ]
PREVIOUS
ON THIS PAGE
Details
The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
BACK TO TOP