Abstract:
Evaporation plays an extremely important role in determining summertime surface temperature variability over land. Observations show the relationship between evaporation and soil moisture generally conforms to the Budyko (1961) “two regime” framework; namely that evaporation is limited by available soil moisture in dry climates and by radiation in wet climates. This framework has led climate models to different parameterizations of the relationship between evaporation and soil moisture in wet and dry regions. Here, we show that a negative feedback between evaporation and surface temperature gives rise to the two apparent evaporation “regimes” and provide analytic solutions for evaporative cooling anomalies that demonstrate the non-linear impact of soil moisture perturbations. The feedback we identify has important implications for how transitions between wet and dry land surfaces may impact temperature variability as the climate warms.
What is the Joint Oslo Seminar (JOS):
Atmospheric and climate sciences have a stronghold in Oslo among the four institutions University of Oslo, the Meteorological Institute, CICERO and NILU. This joint seminar invites renowned international experts to contribute to an informal series of lectures, meant to create interaction with the Oslo atmospheric and climate science community on recent highlights and analysis in the field. All seminars will be held on Thursdays (Noon -1pm) and lunch (sandwiches) will be served on a “first-come-first-served”-basis.