scholarly journals Increasing Cloud Water Resource in a warming world

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingya Cheng ◽  
Qinglong You ◽  
Yuquan Zhou ◽  
Miao Cai ◽  
Nick Pepin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource ◽  
Meridional Circulation ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Cloud Water ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Human Intervention ◽  
Arctic Amplification ◽  
Cold Zone ◽  
Terrestrial Water ◽  
Warming World

Abstract Under global warming, terrestrial water resource regulated by precipitation may become more unevenly distributed across space, and some regions are likely to be highly water-stressed. From the perspective of the hydrological cycle, we propose a method to quantify the water resource with potential precipitation capacity in the atmosphere, or hydrometeors which remain suspended in the atmosphere without contributing to precipitation, namely Cloud Water Resource (CWR). Analyzing the characteristics of CWR during 2000-2017, CWR mainly concentrates in the middle-high latitudes which is the cold zone of the Köppen classification. In a warming world, CWR shows a significant increase, especially in the cold zone. Climate change with Arctic amplification and enhanced meridional circulation both contribute to the change of CWR through influencing hydrometeor inflow. By studying the characteristics of CWR and its influencing mechanisms, we demonstrate a perspective for human intervention with potential CWR in the atmosphere to alleviate terrestrial water resource shortages in the future.

scholarly journals Regions of intensification of extreme snowfall under future warming

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Quante ◽  
Sven N. Willner ◽  
Robin Middelanis ◽  
Anders Levermann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Average Intensity ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Future Warming

AbstractDue to climate change the frequency and character of precipitation are changing as the hydrological cycle intensifies. With regards to snowfall, global warming has two opposing influences; increasing humidity enables intense snowfall, whereas higher temperatures decrease the likelihood of snowfall. Here we show an intensification of extreme snowfall across large areas of the Northern Hemisphere under future warming. This is robust across an ensemble of global climate models when they are bias-corrected with observational data. While mean daily snowfall decreases, both the 99th and the 99.9th percentiles of daily snowfall increase in many regions in the next decades, especially for Northern America and Asia. Additionally, the average intensity of snowfall events exceeding these percentiles as experienced historically increases in many regions. This is likely to pose a challenge to municipalities in mid to high latitudes. Overall, extreme snowfall events are likely to become an increasingly important impact of climate change in the next decades, even if they will become rarer, but not necessarily less intense, in the second half of the century.

scholarly journals Data assimilation of GRACE terrestrial water storage estimates into a regional hydrological model of the Rhine River basin

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 2079-2100 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Tangdamrongsub ◽  
S. C. Steele-Dunne ◽  
B. C. Gunter ◽  
P. G. Ditmar ◽  
A. H. Weerts
Keyword(s):  
Correlation Coefficient ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Rhine River ◽  
Terrestrial Water Storage ◽  
Grace Data ◽  
Terrestrial Water

Abstract. The ability to estimate terrestrial water storage (TWS) realistically is essential for understanding past hydrological events and predicting future changes in the hydrological cycle. Inadequacies in model physics, uncertainty in model land parameters, and uncertainties in meteorological data commonly limit the accuracy of hydrological models in simulating TWS. In an effort to improve model performance, this study investigated the benefits of assimilating TWS estimates derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data into the OpenStreams wflow_hbv model using an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) approach. The study area chosen was the Rhine River basin, which has both well-calibrated model parameters and high-quality forcing data that were used for experimentation and comparison. Four different case studies were examined which were designed to evaluate different levels of forcing data quality and resolution including those typical of other less well-monitored river basins. The results were validated using in situ groundwater (GW) and stream gauge data. The analysis showed a noticeable improvement in GW estimates when GRACE data were assimilated, with a best-case improvement of correlation coefficient from 0.31 to 0.53 and root mean square error (RMSE) from 8.4 to 5.4 cm compared to the reference (ensemble open-loop) case. For the data-sparse case, the best-case GW estimates increased the correlation coefficient from 0.46 to 0.61 and decreased the RMSE by 35%. For the average improvement of GW estimates (for all four cases), the correlation coefficient increases from 0.6 to 0.7 and the RMSE was reduced by 15%. Only a slight overall improvement was observed in streamflow estimates when GRACE data were assimilated. Further analysis suggested that this is likely due to sporadic short-term, but sizeable, errors in the forcing data and the lack of sufficient constraints on the soil moisture component. Overall, the results highlight the benefit of assimilating GRACE data into hydrological models, particularly in data-sparse regions, while also providing insight on future refinements of the methodology.

Enhanced hydrological cycle during Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 at southern high latitudes: New insights from IODP Site U1516

2022 ◽  
pp. 103735
Author(s):  
Hongjin Chen ◽  
Zhaokai Xu ◽  
Germain Bayon ◽  
Dhongil Lim ◽  
Sietske J. Batenburg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Oceanic Anoxic Event ◽  
Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 ◽  
Anoxic Event

Thermodynamic Scaling of the Hydrological Cycle of the Last Glacial Maximum

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 992-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Boos
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Circulation Changes ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract In climate models subject to greenhouse gas–induced warming, vertically integrated water vapor increases at nearly the same rate as its saturation value. Previous studies showed that this increase dominates circulation changes in climate models, so that precipitation minus evaporation (P − E) decreases in the subtropics and increases in the tropics and high latitudes at a rate consistent with a Clausius–Clapeyron scaling. This study examines whether the same thermodynamic scaling describes differences in the hydrological cycle between modern times and the last glacial maximum (LGM), as simulated by a suite of coupled ocean–atmosphere models. In these models, changes in water vapor between modern and LGM climates do scale with temperature according to Clausius–Clapeyron, but this thermodynamic scaling provides a poorer description of the changes in P − E. While the scaling is qualitatively consistent with simulations in the zonal mean, predicting higher P − E in the subtropics and lower P − E in the tropics and high latitudes, it fails to account for high-amplitude zonal asymmetries. Large horizontal gradients of temperature change, which are often neglected when applying the scaling to next-century warming, are shown to be important in large parts of the extratropics. However, even with this correction the thermodynamic scaling provides a poor quantitative fit to the simulations. This suggests that circulation changes play a dominant role in regional hydrological change between modern and LGM climates. Changes in transient eddy moisture transports are shown to be particularly important, even in the deep tropics. Implications for the selection and interpretation of climate proxies are discussed.

Analysis of the Temporal-Spatial Characteristics of Cloud Parameters and the Relationship with the Precipitation over Qilian Mountains Area in Northwest China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wu Zhang ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
Qingyun Zhao ◽  
Chen Pu ◽  
Yan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Cloud Water ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Cloud Parameters ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
Cloud Parameter ◽  
The Relationship

<p>Qilian mountains, located in the arid and semi-arid region of Northwest China, has more amount of natural precipitation than that on both north and south sides, with unique geographical environment and abundant water vapor supply. It is a very important water resource for the surrounding areas. To deeper understand the features of cloud over the areas is significant for the utilization of cloud water resources and sustainable development in this region. In this article, based on MOD08-M3 data, grid ground precipitation data and FY-2 series satellite cloud parameter inversion products, the spatial and temporal features of cloud macro/micro physical parameters, such as Cloud Amount（CA）, Cloud Water Path（CWP）, Cloud Top Temperature（CTT）, Cloud Top Pressure（CTP）, Cloud Optical Depth（COD） and Cloud Particle Effective Radius (CPER) over Qilian Mountains area were analyzed, as well as the relationship between the precipitation and cloud parameters. The results are as follows:</p><ul><li>(1) The regional average values of CA, CWP, CTP, COD and CPER in Qilian Mountains area are 55.50 %, 148.95 g/m², -21.13 ℃, 456.56 hPa, 12.64 and 21.04 μm, respectively. From 2006 to 2015, CA, CWP, COD and CPER decreased by 2.3 %, 21 g/m², 0.68 and 0.51 μm, respectively. CTT and CTP increased by 1.9 ℃ and 65.2 hPa, respectively. Cloud water resources over the area are abundant.</li> <li>(2) There is the richest cloud water resource over the main area of Qilian Mountains, and the cloud parameter condition in Wushaoling area is the best for precipitation. The high value areas of CA in four seasons are distributed in Xining and surroundings, main and south part of mountain range, and Lenghu area, respectively. The high value areas of CWP in four seasons are located in the northeast, north-middle the main part of mountain area and the eastern side of Subei, respectively. The high value areas of COD are located in the east of Subei in winter and in the southeast of the study area in other seasons. The high value areas of CPER in spring are located in the region except Hexi Corridor. In other seasons they are located between Lenghu and Subei, Subei and Tuole, and in the northeast of range, respectively.</li> <li>(3) The monthly precipitation is positively correlated with CA , CWP, COD, but negatively correlated with CTT and CTP. The relationship between CPERs and precipitation is positive in January, April, July, November and December, but negative in other months. CA and CPERs are most correlated with precipitation in May and September, respectively. while the correlation between other cloud parameters and precipitation are the highest in January.</li> <li>(4) When the values of COD and CPER are too small or too large, the actual precipitation will be limited.</li> </ul><p><strong>Key words: </strong>Cloud physical parameters; Precipitation; Water resource; Qilian Mountains</p>

How Salty Is the Global Ocean: Weighting It All or Tasting It a Sip at a Time?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Ponte ◽  
Qiang Sun ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Xinfeng Liang
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Data Quality Control ◽  
Argo Data ◽  
Terrestrial Water ◽  
Control Procedures ◽  
Global Mean Sea Level

<div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="section"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p>Global ocean mean salinity <em>S </em>is a key indicator of the Earth's hydrological cycle and the exchanges of freshwater between the terrestrial water and ice reservoirs and the ocean. We explore two different ways of determining how salty the ocean is: (1) use in situ salinity measurements to taste the ocean a sip at a time and obtain a sample average; (2) use space gravimetry to weigh the whole ocean including sea-ice, and then separate sea-ice effects to infer changes in liquid freshwater content and thus <em>S</em>. Focusing on the 2005-2019 period, we assess monthly series of <em>S </em>derived from five different in situ gridded products, based mostly but not exclusively on Argo data, versus a series obtained from GRACE and GRACE Follow-On data and available sea ice mass estimates.</p> <p>There is little consistency in <em>S </em>series from the two methods for all time scales examined (seasonal, interannual, long-term trend). In situ series show larger variability, particularly at the longest scales, and are somewhat incoherent with the GRACE-derived series. In addition, there are wide spread differences among all the in situ <em>S </em>series, which denote their considerable sensitivity to choice of data, quality control procedures, and mapping methods. Results also suggest that in situ <em>S </em>values are prone to systematic biases, with most series showing increases after around 2014 that are equivalent to a drop in barystatic sea level of tens of centimeters! Estimates derived from GRACE are much smaller in magnitude and consistent with contributions of freshwater to the global mean sea level budgets, and they are thus more reliable than in situ-based <em>S </em>estimates. The existence of GRACE-derived estimates can serve as a consistency check on in situ measurements, revealing potential unknown biases and providing a way to cross-calibrate the latter data.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div>

scholarly journals High-latitude ocean ventilation and its role in Earth's climate transitions

2017 ◽  
Vol 375 (2102) ◽  
pp. 20160324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto C. Naveira Garabato ◽  
Graeme A.  MacGilchrist ◽  
Peter J. Brown ◽  
D. Gwyn Evans ◽  
Andrew J. S. Meijers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Climate System ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
Ocean Ventilation ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
Warming World ◽  
Climate Transitions

The processes regulating ocean ventilation at high latitudes are re-examined based on a range of observations spanning all scales of ocean circulation, from the centimetre scales of turbulence to the basin scales of gyres. It is argued that high-latitude ocean ventilation is controlled by mechanisms that differ in fundamental ways from those that set the overturning circulation. This is contrary to the assumption of broad equivalence between the two that is commonly adopted in interpreting the role of the high-latitude oceans in Earth's climate transitions. Illustrations of how recognizing this distinction may change our view of the ocean's role in the climate system are offered. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Ocean ventilation and deoxygenation in a warming world’.

scholarly journals Paleobotanical proxies for early Eocene climates and ecosystems in northern North America from middle to high latitudes

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 1387-1410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher K. West ◽  
David R. Greenwood ◽  
Tammo Reichgelt ◽  
Alexander J. Lowe ◽  
Janelle M. Vachon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Early Eocene ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Early Eocene Climatic Optimum ◽  
Northern Half ◽  
Thermal Maximum ◽  
High Precipitation

Abstract. Early Eocene climates were globally warm, with ice-free conditions at both poles. Early Eocene polar landmasses supported extensive forest ecosystems of a primarily temperate biota but also with abundant thermophilic elements, such as crocodilians, and mesothermic taxodioid conifers and angiosperms. The globally warm early Eocene was punctuated by geologically brief hyperthermals such as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), culminating in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), during which the range of thermophilic plants such as palms extended into the Arctic. Climate models have struggled to reproduce early Eocene Arctic warm winters and high precipitation, with models invoking a variety of mechanisms, from atmospheric CO2 levels that are unsupported by proxy evidence to the role of an enhanced hydrological cycle, to reproduce winters that experienced no direct solar energy input yet remained wet and above freezing. Here, we provide new estimates of climate and compile existing paleobotanical proxy data for upland and lowland midlatitude sites in British Columbia, Canada, and northern Washington, USA, and from high-latitude lowland sites in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic to compare climatic regimes between the middle and high latitudes of the early Eocene – spanning the PETM to the EECO – in the northern half of North America. In addition, these data are used to reevaluate the latitudinal temperature gradient in North America during the early Eocene and to provide refined biome interpretations of these ancient forests based on climate and physiognomic data.

scholarly journals A worldwide analysis of trends in water-balance evapotranspiration

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 5739-5765 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Ukkola ◽  
I. C. Prentice
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Interannual Variability ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Additional Control ◽  
Terrestrial Water ◽  
Strong Control

Abstract. Climate change is expected to alter the global hydrological cycle, with inevitable consequences for freshwater availability to people and ecosystems. But the attribution of recent trends in the terrestrial water balance remains disputed. This study attempts to account statistically for both trends and interannual variability in water-balance evapotranspiration (ET), estimated from the annual observed streamflow in 109 river basins during "water years" 1961–1999 and two gridded precipitation datasets. The basins were chosen based on the availability of streamflow time-series data in the Dai et al. (2009) synthesis. They were divided into water-limited "dry" and energy-limited "wet" basins following the Budyko framework. We investigated the potential roles of precipitation, aerosol-corrected solar radiation, land-use change, wind speed, air temperature, and atmospheric CO2. Both trends and variability in ET show strong control by precipitation. There is some additional control of ET trends by vegetation processes, but little evidence for control by other factors. Interannual variability in ET was overwhelmingly dominated by precipitation, which accounted on average for 52–54% of the variation in wet basins (ranging from 0 to 99%) and 84–85% in dry basins (ranging from 13 to 100%). Precipitation accounted for 39–42% of ET trends in wet basins and 69–79% in dry basins. Cropland expansion increased ET in dry basins. Net atmospheric CO2 effects on transpiration, estimated using the Land-surface Processes and eXchanges (LPX) model, did not contribute to observed trends in ET because declining stomatal conductance was counteracted by slightly but significantly increasing foliage cover.

scholarly journals Changing Characteristics of Runoff and Freshwater Export From Watersheds Draining Northern Alaska

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Rawlins ◽  
Lei Cai ◽  
Svetlana L. Stuefer ◽  
Dmitry Nicolsky
Keyword(s):  
River Discharge ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Active Layer Thickness ◽  
Permafrost Degradation ◽  
Total Runoff ◽  
Spring Freshet ◽  
Terrestrial Water ◽  
Freshwater Export

Abstract. The quantity and quality of river discharge in arctic regions is influenced by many processes including climate, watershed attributes and, increasingly, hydrological cycle intensification and permafrost thaw. We used a hydrological model to quantify baseline conditions and investigate the changing character of hydrological elements for Arctic watersheds between Point Barrow and just west of Mackenzie River over the period 1981–2010. The region annually exports 28.1 km3 yr−1 of freshwater via river discharge, with 51.9 % (14.6 km3 yr−1) coming collectively from the Colville, Kuparuk, and Sagavanirktok rivers. Our results point to significant (p < 0.05) increases (134–212 % of average) in cold season discharge (CSD) for several large North Slope rivers including the Colville and Kuparuk, and for the region as a whole. A significant increase in the proportion of subsurface runoff to total runoff is noted for the region and 24 of 42 study basins, with the change most prevalent across the northern foothills of the Brooks Range. Relatively large increases in simulated active-layer thickness (ALT) suggest a physical connection between warming climate, permafrost degradation, and increasing subsurface flow to streams and rivers. A decline in terrestrial water storage (TWS) is attributed to losses in soil ice that outweigh gains in soil liquid water storage. Over the 30 yr period the timing of peak spring (freshet) discharge shifts earlier by 4.5 days, though the time trend is only marginally (p = 0.1) significant. These changing characteristics of Arctic rivers have important implications for water, carbon, and nutrient cycling in coastal environments.

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