Higher temperatures are usually reported during meteorological drought and there are two prevailing interpretations for this observation. The first is that the increase in temperature (T) causes an increase in evaporation (E) that dries the environment. The second states that the decline in precipitation (P) during drought reduces the available water thereby decreasing E, and in turn the consequent reduction in evaporative cooling causes higher T. To test which of these interpretations is correct, we use climatic data (T, P) and a recently released database (CERES) that includes incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave surface radiative fluxes to study meteorological drought at four sites (parts of Australia, US, and Brazil), using the Budyko approximation to calculate E. The results support the second interpretation at arid sites. The analysis also showed that increases in T due to drought have a different radiative signature from increases in T due to elevated CO2.
The contribution of reduction in evaporative cooling to higher surface air temperatures during drought
D. Yin,M. Roderick,G. Leech,F. Sun,Yuefei Huang
Published 2014 in Geophysical Research Letters
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- Publication year
2014
- Venue
Geophysical Research Letters
- Publication date
2014-11-28
- Fields of study
Geology, Environmental Science
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